Oh! Almost forgot.

[camwyn]

On May 10, 1869, a golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.

And in a world of my own devising, the driving of that spike changed the face of the United States forever, as the rail network of a continent surged with untold quantities of supernatural energies, waking the West into a brave new world of Chinese magic, chi, and spirits in general. Sherriff Jake and Dr. Lau Fong Sai, I'll be visiting y'all again very, very soon.

Comments

[dragonwhishes.livejournal.com]

*Squeeeeeeee*

Yay Camwyn writing a story!

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Actually, four precious metal spikes were used in the ceremony: two golden, one silver, and one of an alloy of gold, silver, and iron. But the real final spike was an ordinary iron one, which was rigged to automatically send a telegram as it was driven in, letting the world know that the railroad was complete. Except that it didn't work, and the telegram was sent by hand.

The silver spike and one of the gold ones, as well as the silver hammer with which they were driven, may be (http://cprr.org/Museum/Golden_Spike_Missing.html) in the Stanford museum. The gold-silver-iron spike has disappeared. But the second golden spike, which was sponsored by the San Francisco News Letter (http://cprr.org/Museum/Newspapers/SF_Newsletter_1869.html) was taken by a Chrononaut (http://wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/EAC/Default.html) on 18-Apr-1906, from the News Letter offices, just before the building was destroyed in the earthquake and subsequent fire.

[silly-dan.livejournal.com]

So what happened with the other last spike in Craigellachie (sp?), BC?

[camwyn]

The Canadian government said "ooooooshit" and ordered a massive review of anything they could find that was related to the phenomenon and the American rails before doing one damn foot more of work.

... actually, that's not true. I bought a book on the building of Canada's transcontinental railroad last year. I haven't read it yet. I'll figure out what happens to them once I have, but I'm pretty sure it'll come back to what I said above.

[midnightlurker.livejournal.com]

*strikes up the Gordon Lightfoot music*

There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real