How America Built a Railroad Straight Across a Lake on Wood

The Lucin Cutoff, built by the Southern Pacific Railroad between 1902-1904, was a remarkable engineering achievement that constructed a 12-mile wooden trestle across the Great Salt Lake using 38,256 trees driven into the lake bed, solving the problem of steep mountain grades that had burdened the original transcontinental route since 1869; this innovative solution, which cost $8 million and employed 3,000 workers around the clock under electric lights, ultimately replaced the historic Promontory Summit route and even divided the lake into two distinct colors by blocking freshwater inflow to the northern arm.