A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869 UNKNOWN, BUT POSSIBLY G.W. LAIRD, SAN FRANCISCO, 1869

A STEEL RAILROAD SPIKE CLAD IN GOLD AND SILVER USED IN THE CEREMONY MARKING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, 10 MAY 1869
Unknown, but possibly G.W. Laird, San Francisco, 1869
Driving the last spike. The Arizona Spike—presented at the ceremony marking the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Commissioned and presented by Arizona Territorial Governor Anson P.K. Safford, this was one of four ceremonial spikes used to mark the "meeting of the rails" at Promontory Point, Utah on 10 May 1869. Inscribed on the shaft: "Ribbed with iron, clad in silver and crowned with gold Arizona presents her offering to the enterprise that has banded a continent, dictated a pathway to commerce. Presented by Governor Safford."
135mm (long); 25 x 20mm (head); 11 x 11mm (shaft)

Provenance
Anson P.K. Safford (1830-1891) – Sidney Dillon (1812-1892) – by descent to Florence Dillon Wyckoff Whitney (1877-1960) — gift to the Museum of the City of New York, 1943.