The Golden Spike

May 10, 1869 -- two railroad companies, Union Pacific and Central Pacific, joined 1,776 miles of rail at Promontory Summit of the then Utah Territory. Leland Stanford (of Stanford University fame), president of the Central Pacific, missed hitting the alloy spike (pure gold would have been too soft for the sledgehammer anyway), but that did not prevent the telegraphs flashing 'DONE' all the way across the USA.