Ogden Union Station: Where the Nation Was Stitched Together
Near Ogden, Utah
Ogden was the railroad city at the heart of America's transcontinental network. When the Central Pacific and Union Pacific drove the golden spike at Promontory Summit in eighteen sixty-nine, all traffic between California and the East passed through Ogden to change trains. The city's Union Station, built in its current form in nineteen twenty-four after a fire destroyed the previous depot, handled enormous volumes of passengers and freight through the steam era.
During World War Two it was an important rail junction in the West, moving troops and war materiel. Rail traffic declined after the war and the station was eventually closed to passengers. Today the building has been restored as a cultural center housing the Utah State Railroad Museum, a firearms museum, a classic car museum, and a cowboy and western heritage museum.
Its Spanish Colonial Revival facade still anchors Twenty-Fifth Street, Ogden's historic commercial district.
