 On July 30, 1965 Golden Spike National Historic Site was created "for the purpose of establishing a national historic site commemorating the completion of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States... Some 690 miles east of Sacramento and 1,087 miles west of Omaha, Golden Spike lies in the northern reaches of the Great Basin Desert and ranges from 4,300 to 4,900 feet above sea level. Located at the site of the driving of the last spike of the first transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, its paramount purpose is to illustrate the social, economic, and political impacts of the transcontinental railroad on the growth and westward development of the United States.
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