After Promontory: 150 Years of Transcontinental Railroading Exhibit

On May 10, 1869, two railroads—built with haste, hope, and aspiration—joined in a lonely desert of northern Utah, at a place called Promontory. To mark the 150th anniversary of the beginning of this era, the Center for Railroad Photography & Art has launched a special project, After Promontory: 150 Years of Transcontinental Railroading. In complement to many of the sesquicentennial exhibits and events planned throughout the West in 2019, After Promontory takes a wide view, considering the events at Promontory to be the start of a larger phenomenon, an entire era of transcontinental railroad construction that stretched for nearly fifty years. At its core is the assertion that, collectively, the transcontinental railroads profoundly reshaped the human geography of the West, giving birth to the region we recognize today. The exhibit at Denver Public Library focuses on the Colorado region.