On September 5, 1876, crowds gathered in quiet canyon next to the Santa Clara River for a special ceremony that would put not Canyon Country, but Los Angeles, on the map. That day, a golden spike, driven by railroad magnate Charles Crocker, united the railroad tracks from north and south, connecting San Francisco to the sleepy hamlet of Los Angeles and changing its future forever. The SCV Historical Society invites rail fans and history buffs alike to come to Lang Station at 10 a.m. Sept. 5 to commemorate the event.
Making this happen wasn’t an easy task, but one that Crocker met by hiring thousands of Chinese laborers who would work in both directions. But each team faced a formidable geographic challenge in their quest to lay rail. To facilitate the “wedding of the rails” and acknowledge Lang’s status in history, another landmark was created.
Bringing the tracks through the Central Valley, the southbound crew had to get through the Tehachapi mountains. Southern Pacific Railroad Chief Civil Engineer William Hood designed a 3,779-foot spiral track to maintain a safe 2.2% grade; without it, the mountain slope was too steep and trains lacked the power to make a straight ascent. Hood designed a helix-shaped spiral where the track loops over itself, gaining 77 feet of elevation in a 0.72 mile circle, creating the Tehachapi Loop…