From the Archives: November 15, 1919: Golden Spike Completes San Diego & Arizona Railway

The San Diego Union-Tribune will mark its 150th anniversary in 2018 by presenting a significant front page from the archives each day throughout the year.

Saturday, November 15, 1919

In 1919 the San Diego & Arizona Railway was completed after 13 years and $18 million spent by John D. Spreckels and Southern Pacific Railroad. Spreckels himself drove a golden spike at Carisso (now commonly spelled Carrizo) Gorge, to mark the occasion.

Built to provide San Diego with a direct transcontinental rail link, the 148-mile railway ran from downtown San Diego to the Imperial Valley where it met up with the Southern Pacific line. It included a 44-mile stretch of track through Mexico, between Tijuana and Tecate.

Here are the first few paragraphs of the story:

DRIVE FINAL SPIKE ON S.D.&A.

SIX HUNDRED JOYOUS SAN DIEGANS SEE LAST LINK IN LINE JOINED

“Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here,” played the steam calliope attachment of the San Diego & Arizona locomotive this morning, and the whole city heard the music through the crisp morning air.

Then somebody shouted “Com’ on, com’n, we’re going out to nail this transcontinental railroad in place,” and the calliope played “Merrily We Roll Along,” while the wheels turned and the 10-coach San Diego & Arizona excursion train pulled out from the Union depot for the golden spike driving ceremony.

Carrying Golden Spike

President John D. Spreckels stood in the rear of his private car “Coronado” at the end of the vanishing train, looking out upon the crowd left behind at the station. This afternoon, in Carisso gorge, he lifted a workman’s maul and drove home the golden spike that finished construction of his railroad, which gives San Diego direct rail communication with Imperial valley and the east.

“Last Spike Driven, San Diego and Arizona Railway Co. Carisso Gorge, Nov. 15, 1919,” read the inscription on one side of this golden spike, and on the reverse is “Spike Driven by Mr. John D. Spreckels, President.”

Nearly 600 passengers were aboard the train, it was estimated. Belated rush for tickets yesterday afternoon sent the sales to 580, and an extra coach was provided. Some more were allowed to get aboard at the station this morning, and by the time the representations of way points step on, the train will be filled to capacity.

Leaving at 7:45 o’clock, the excursion train, bearing, for the most part, San Diego business men who have builded their businesses in anticipation of this railroad, rolled along the line to Tijuana, which is already familiar to thousands of patrons, but from Tijuana eastward, few of the passengers have ridden the road.