 Frontier fighters! Frontier fighters! Devoted sons and ardent champions of those daring deeds which brought fame and fortune to the West. One of the most thrilling epochs in the history of the West and Southwest was the magnificent achievement of spanning the continent by the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroad. Behind this great epic feat, there was a pitched battle of men fighting feverishly against time, the elements in Indians, and for the formative years, this great saga of sweat and steel was boisterously chanted against the background of the Civil War. One night before the fall of Vicksburg, Colonel Grenville Dodge was suddenly ordered to Washington. The business was marked urgent. The signature was that of Abraham Lincoln. The President remarks to his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, Mary, I've sent for Grenville Dodge. Aren't there enough men in Washington to advise you about the Union Pacific Railroad? Yes, Mary, but they're not honest men. Under the Railroad Act of 1862, we can start building now. They have in California. We haven't here because every congressman wants the railroad to start in his state. If it were small enough, he'd like to have it puffed out right from his own backyard. Oh, hey, Lincoln, how can you keep on joking when you've got a war and a transcontinental railroad on your hand? No, not on my hands, Mary. In my hands. The Civil War in my right hand and a transcontinental railroad in my left. And I guess a man needs to juggle them both. Colonel Dodge, first appointment, Mr. President. Oh, yeah, I'll see him. Mary, Nitton and War go together, but not Nitton and Railroad. I had no intention of staying, Abrams. And to span a continent and bring the people of the West face to face with the people of the East. Mr. President? Come in, Dodge. Come in. Mr. President? Dodge, I called you to the White House because you're an honest man. That's first. Second, because you know about railroads. I'm on it, sir. By the act of 1862, Congress gives me the power to authorize the building of a railroad. A company is formed known as the Union Pacific. They're waiting only for one thing, an approved starting point and government money. Mr. President, suppose I furnish the money and you furnish the starting point. Yeah, seriously, Dodge, the issue is this. Oh, a boot up a chair. Don't be so formal. Thank you, sir. California already is broken ground for the Central Pacific. We're still waiting. The money crowd are lobbying for Omaha as a terminal. Of course, they want to serve themselves. I want to serve the nation. You can serve the nation best, Mr. President, by breaking ground at Council Bluffs, Iowa. If you'll step to this map, sir. That is strategic. This is the way the route should go. Starting here and possibly meeting with the Central Pacific in Utah. That's a great stretch of country. Plains, desert, mountains. You'll need an army of workers, Mr. President, to build the railroad and an army of soldiers to protect the workers. Well, Dodge, when do you think this work should start? Right now, sir. That's the way I feel about it. If I can just live to see the war brought to a just righteous end and this railroad underway. Why, Mr. President, you live to drive the golden spike in the last railroad tie connecting East and West. No man lives longer than he should. And there's no exception to the rule. Be the man a rail splitter or a president. I'll start the work, Dodge, but when the war is over, I want you to finish it. And so, with the nation torn by a war that threatened her very existence, this vision which far-sighted men had had for more than a quarter of a century began. Feverishly, thousands of men worked under the burning sun of summer and the rain, snow, and stinging sleet of winter. Worked, sweated, swore, but drove on. Millions of government money more than matched millions of private capital. Out of the gloom and suspicion which shrouded the early years, emerged hope and optimism and faith. Hundreds of miles of tracks had been laid both in the East and the West. The war was drawing to a close. Then, suddenly came the day, the war was over. In the West, Leland Stanford, inspiration of the Central Pacific, said, I say that every man who lays down his musket should pick up a shovel, an axe, and a hammer, and work for the railroad. The destiny of the West lies in the East, and the destiny of the East in the West. God speed the day when men and women in the East, the West, the North and the South, shall stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart. Now those rebels are Yankees, but once again as Americans. The nation rejoiced at the end of the conflict, and speedily began the work of reconstruction. Then, as suddenly as a bolt leaves the blue, the telegraph, which went hand in hand with every mile of railroad, ticked out this horrible news. Important dispatch men, hold your work. It's about all day as Congress to vote as opponents. Well, Bill, what was the message? Bill, what's come over here? Bill, come on, let's hear it. God have mercy on all of us. God have mercy. They've gone out and shot old Abe. Shot old Abe? Bill, it can be. Poor old Abe, an act by the name of Booth in Ford's Theater, shot him dead. For the next week, after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, chaos was king. The alarmists predicted the railroads would be abandoned. Those who wanted to hold back the march of progress said it was the will of God. The Almighty had stepped in and stopped such wickedness. Then, Andrew Johnson took the oath of office and called for Grenville Dodge, now a general, and sent him directly to the Indian country. This was the first-ordered Dodge telegraph to all district commanders on the plains. Place every mounted man in your command on the south-plat route. Prepare telegraph lines. Attack all bodies of hostile Indians. Stay with them and pound them until they move north of the plat or south of the Arkansas. I am coming with two regiments of cavalry to the plat line and will open and protect it. But it was one thing to give an order on the plains in 65 and another to see that it was carried out. Late in July, 2,000 Indians of different tribes launched a campaign to destroy all telegraph stations along the plat. In August, matters reached a crisis. The government, its army reduced to peacetime strength again, was faced with a problem of going on or backing out. To control the Indians, a new army of 22,000 men was needed and $50 million to finance such a campaign. The treasury was almost depleted, yet the railroads called for more government money and the immigrant trains called for protection. General Dodge, intent on a solution of the problem, took a small company of mounted soldiers and went into the heart of the Indian country. General, is this a scouting expedition or just what is it? I'm looking for two things, Palady. Where all these surprise attacks come from, also for some undiscovered past through which the railroad might go down into the Laramie Plains without so much greed. Well, you certainly picked the smallest trooper men could want to risk a pitch battle with. Palady, I'm not looking for a fight today. Oh, they're home. Well, it's like you'll have it anyway. Indians and a lot of them. Give me those glasses. Crows. How many? About 300. You think they see us? No doubt they followed us all day and aimed to close in at night. Dismount! Dismount! Dismount! I'm at the top of this ridge. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We're fired on, we return the fire immediately. Start signal fires which our regiment will see. Look, the crows have dismounted now. They're starting to scale the mountains to cut off retreat either north or south. All right. We're high enough for the fires and there's plenty of fuel here. Start the signal fires. Yes, sir. Indians coming closer. Six of you men, start picking them off. Fire's going, sir, and let them have a volley or two. All right, men. Let them have a volley. Sir, pick up one or two of them crows yourself. Look, the crows are rising, sir. Right, old arch. Good. We should have an answering signal before long. More crows. Stale on the mountains here. A volley on the left, sir, men. Camps answering, sir, they're coming. There they go, general. Every last crow is packing up and high-tailing it for home. They saw the answering smoke signals being knocked out. Hold your fire now, men. Yes, sir. Allady, I've been so busy looking straight ahead into the left, I never thought to look to the right. See that slope going down so gently to the plane? Yeah. I think we've discovered a pass through which we can build the Union Pacific into Laramie. I wonder where that slope goes to. It seems to me it slopes down to a crit bed. Must be a grade of less than 100 feet to the mile. Then, Jim, you keep a look out here. Yes, sir. Rest of you fellows, Mount horse, and follow me. I think we've made a real fight this time. General Dodge made a discovery that is part of the history of the Union Pacific. He took back to Washington the discovery of this new pass and the plan of action to put down the Indians. Both were bitterly fought, but in the end, he won. The years good and bad, fraught with victory and with defeat, rolled on. And then came that historic day, May 10th, 1869. The last rail was ready to be laid and the last spike to be driven. A Union Pacific steam monster driven from the east was almost chugging in the face of one driven from the west. The meeting place was Promontory Point, Utah. Now, the last rail was laid and three spikes were to be driven, one gold from California, a silver spike from Nevada, and an iron spike from the east. A telegraph line attached to the silver hammer used to drive the spikes was wired to a telegraph instrument and the thrilling news was carried to the nation. The Transcontinental Railroad had at last become a reality and the nation was welded into a stronger, more indissolvable union. This was as Leland Stanford had predicted in 1862. The day when men and women in the east, the west, the north and the south shall stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart mother's rebels are Yankees, but once again as Americans. And so, another chapter has been written in the lives of frontier fighters.