Ogden, Lucin Cutoff, UTAH - Great Salt Lake - Moonlight - 1912

Description

Ogden, Lucin Cutoff, UTAH - Great Salt Lake - Moonlight - 1912: The Lucin Cutoff is a 102-mile (164 km) railroad line in Utah which runs from Ogden to its namesake in Lucin. The line includes a nearly 12-mile (19 km) long railroad trestle that crosses the Great Salt Lake. Built by the Southern Pacific Company (SP) between February 1902 and March 1904, the cutoff bypassed the original Central Pacific Railroad route through Promontory Summit where the Golden Spike was driven in 1869. By going west across the lake from Ogden to Lucin it cut off 44 miles (71 km) and also significantly decreased curvature and grades. Built under the direction of SP chief engineer William Hood, a team of 3,000 SP workers worked seven days a week to build the line. By 1908, five passenger trains and seven freight trains were using the Lucin Cutoff in each direction daily. In 1942, the original line was removed between Lucin and Corinne, Utah — with the last Promontory spikes pulled up and the scrap metal donated to the war effort. In 1944 the cutoff was the site of a train wreck in which 48 people were killed. The trestle was eventually replaced in the late 1950s with a parallel causeway built under contract by the Morrison Knudsen construction company. This Divided Back Era postcard, mailed in 1912, is in good condition, but there is edge wear and a crease to the card's lower left hand corner. There is also a crease across the card's top border.