Transcontinental Railroad Completed in 1869

 Events
May 102024
 

Transcontinental railroad was finished in Promontory, Utah, in 1869. The Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad met at Promontory Point. Leland Stanford drove in a golden spike to mark the completion of the rail lines. The spike was removed and preserved for history. Idea: Children could read more about the difficulties of the two train companies as they built the railroad lines. A good source of information is William Durbin’s The Journal of Sean Sullivan: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker.

First Telephone in White House

 Events
May 102024
 
President Rutherford B. Hayes

President Rutherford B. Hayes

First telephone in White House was installed in 1877. President Rutherford B. Hayes had the phone placed in the telegraph room. Few people had phones, so the phone seldom rang. Its phone number was “1.” President Herbert Hoover had a telephone installed in the Oval Office on March 29, 1929.