| View to the right side of the photo shows the salt / mud flats of the Great Salt lake, which in 2022 is greatly receded from previous years pool elevations. The Wasatch Front looms on the horizon in this view looking East. Down the hill you can see the grading work done by the Central Pacific track gangs during the period of time when both railroads had track crews grading roadbed, often side-by-side like this because they received payment from Uncle Sam for every mile that was graded. That was eventually settled by a US government decree that the two competing railroad companies would join at the height of land in the crossing of the Promontory Range: Promontory Summit, where the golden spike ceremony was held on May 10, 1869. From the point where the golden spike was driven the track heads downgrade in both directions |