This ceremonial 9-ounce solid-gold spike was driven by Southern Pacific Railroad President Charles Crocker into the final tie laid between San Francisco and Los Angeles. This united remote LA,, through the newly created Transcontinental Railroad, with the rest of the country including the east coast. California, and America, now had an interconnected delivery and communication system. This immensely powerful platform was in the hands of a few business men. Today it's Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. In the 1870's and for decades to come, it was Crocker, Huntington, Stanford and Hopkins. Names that echo today.
If it moved in California, they controlled it -- from crops to congressmen. That's why the railroads were popularly referred to as, "The Octopus." Ultimately there was a backlash to this stranglehold on daily life. Will we see this again?
(I took these photos at the California Historical Society on Mission Street near 3rd. )
"Last Spike"
Sheet music circa 1880
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