opposition of Brigham Young. The head of the church had decreed that the
road must pass to the south of the lake, and as the Central Pacific had
surveyed a line that way, and General Dodge had declared in favor of the
northern route, the Mormons threw their powerful influence to the
Southern. The Union Pacific was boycotted, and all good Mormons
forbidden to aid the road in any way.

Here, again, the chief engineer brought Bradford's diplomacy to bear on
Brigham and won him over.

While the Union Pacific was building west, the Central Pacific had been
building east, and here, in the Salt Lake basin, the advance forces of
the two companies met. The United States Congress directed that the
rails should be joined wherever the two came together, but the bonus
($32,000 to the mile) left a good margin to the builders in the valley,
so, instead of joining the rails, the pathfinders only said "Howdy do!"
and then "Good-bye!" and kept going. The graders followed close upon the
heels of the engineers, so that by the time the track-layers met the two
grades paralleled each other for a distance of two hundred miles. When
the rails actually met, the Government compelled the two roads to couple
up. It had been a friendly contest that left no bad blood. Indeed they
were all willing to stop, for the iron trail was open from the Atlantic
to the Pacific.


V

The tenth day of May, 1869, was the date fixed for the driving of the
last spike and the official opening of the line. Special trains,
carrying prominent railway and Government officials, were hurrying out