We were in our car, just past Brigham City, when we began trying to decide whether to jaunt on over to Promontory Summit to see the trains. How far is it? Is it worth a trip? What can you do there?
In pre-iPhone days, we would have used a map in the car to determine distance, but that wouldn't have answered the other questions. Stopping at a gas station might have helped, or perhaps finding Brigham City's City Hall or tourist kiosk. Asking strangers is always tricky, though (if someone had asked me about Hoover Dam, for example, while I was working in Las Vegas, I wouldn't have had any good answers), and who knows where the tourist kiosk is in Brigham City, if they even have one.
But no fear! Bradley handed me his trusty iPhone, and I searched the internet for information about Promontory Summit. Voila! We made an educated decision, and we were on our way to having a great summer adventure on the spur (get it? Spur?) of the moment. As we drove west, we laughed and marveled at our internet-searching abilities.
While at the National Historical Site, two things in particular caught my attention. One was this charming almost-anachronism:
And the other was a sign explaining some of the amazing accomplishments of the completed transcontinental railroad. For example, within days of the joining of the rails, the first shipment of fresh fruit from California was making its way to the East. It would arrive in just 4 or 5 days, an unheard-of amazement.
And I started to consider: before the railroad, there was virtually no way to get fresh fruit from the West Coast to the East Coast. The journey took 2-3 months by boat. But, suddenly, in the blink of an eye, that journey was erased. How stunning, how marvelous that had to have seemed to the people of that time.
Almost as amazing as accessing the internet from my van in an unknown city, using a tiny phone-device.
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