Sacramento Railroad Station

William Hahn's depiction of the Central Pacific Railroad's western terminus in Sacramento—California's state capital—emphasizes the mingling of people from different cultural and economic backgrounds. In the foreground, a carriage meets its finely dressed passengers, while at the far right a Chinese laborer carries a heavy load. Sacramento�s status as a growing frontier town is suggested by the presence of a hardware store advertising building supplies.

The Central Pacific was funded by railroad investors known as the "Big Four"��Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington, and Mark Hopkins. Stanford drove the Golden Spike that completed the first transcontinental railway at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, in 1869. For many this act symbolized the realization of the United States' "manifest destiny" to settle the American West. Hahn's images of technological progress and economic prosperity helped to transform the perception of California as a Gold Rush frontier territory into that of a stable state.