07/09/2026
Four score and 84 years ago, in the midst of a divided nation, President Abraham Lincoln placed his hand to the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, and set in motion a railroad that would unite East to West, people to people, and commerce to country.
Today in Altoona, I had the honor of standing as Lincoln beside Union Pacific’s Abraham Lincoln Locomotive No. 1616, displayed with the mighty Big Boy No. 4014 on its America 250 coast-to-coast expedition. The great steam engine before us is a living remembrance of the American will to build, to endure, and to unite.
Lincoln understood that rails were iron threads in the fabric of Union. Even as war threatened to tear the nation apart, he looked westward and believed that this republic must not only survive, but grow together.
As Lincoln wrote in 1862, “The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.” So it was then, and so it remains now. The tracks laid by the hands of generations still carry the story of labor, invention, sacrifice, and national purpose.
Abraham Lincoln #1616 beside Big Boy #4014 is past and present joined upon the same rail, Lincoln’s vision, America’s industry, and the continuing hope that this nation, “of the people, by the people, for the people,” shall keep moving forward.
~ Keystone Lincoln
