At Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869, workers for the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads drove the ceremonial last spikes connecting the nation's first transcontinental railroad — a 1,776-mile line that cut travel from New York to San Francisco from six months to six days. Working replica locomotives meet nose-to-nose as they did in 1869, and the original grade and cuts of both railroads remain visible across the high Utah desert.