Golden Spike ceremony
E193053
The Golden Spike ceremony was the 1869 event at Promontory Summit, Utah, that marked the completion of the United States’ First Transcontinental Railroad by symbolically joining its eastern and western sections.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Golden Spike ceremony canonical | 2 |
| Golden Spike | 1 |
| Golden Spike (artifact) | 1 |
| Last Spike Ceremony | 1 |
| Last Spike ceremony | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1742174 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Golden Spike ceremony Context triple: [First Transcontinental Railroad, significantEvent, Golden Spike ceremony]
-
A.
Golden Spike Tower
Golden Spike Tower is an observation tower and visitor attraction in North Platte, Nebraska, offering panoramic views of Union Pacific’s massive Bailey Yard, one of the world’s largest railroad classification yards.
-
B.
Centennial Flame
The Centennial Flame is an eternal flame and fountain on Parliament Hill in Ottawa that commemorates the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.
-
C.
Golden Gate International Exposition
The Golden Gate International Exposition was a world’s fair held in San Francisco Bay in 1939–1940 to celebrate the completion of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges and showcase Pacific Rim cultures and technological progress.
-
D.
National Transcontinental Railway
The National Transcontinental Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental rail line built in the early 20th century to link eastern and western Canada and later absorbed into the Canadian National Railway system.
-
E.
California Pacific International Exposition
The California Pacific International Exposition was a 1935–1936 world's fair in San Diego that showcased art, architecture, and international exhibits to promote the city and its development.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Golden Spike ceremony Target entity description: The Golden Spike ceremony was the 1869 event at Promontory Summit, Utah, that marked the completion of the United States’ First Transcontinental Railroad by symbolically joining its eastern and western sections.
-
A.
Golden Spike Tower
Golden Spike Tower is an observation tower and visitor attraction in North Platte, Nebraska, offering panoramic views of Union Pacific’s massive Bailey Yard, one of the world’s largest railroad classification yards.
-
B.
Centennial Flame
The Centennial Flame is an eternal flame and fountain on Parliament Hill in Ottawa that commemorates the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.
-
C.
Golden Gate International Exposition
The Golden Gate International Exposition was a world’s fair held in San Francisco Bay in 1939–1940 to celebrate the completion of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges and showcase Pacific Rim cultures and technological progress.
-
D.
National Transcontinental Railway
The National Transcontinental Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental rail line built in the early 20th century to link eastern and western Canada and later absorbed into the Canadian National Railway system.
-
E.
California Pacific International Exposition
The California Pacific International Exposition was a 1935–1936 world's fair in San Diego that showcased art, architecture, and international exhibits to promote the city and its development.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
historical event
ⓘ
railroad ceremony ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Driving of the Last Spike
ⓘ
Golden Spike ceremony ⓘ
surface form:
Last Spike ceremony
|
| associatedSite | Golden Spike National Historical Park ⓘ |
| attendee |
Grenville Dodge
ⓘ
Leland Stanford ⓘ Samuel S. Montague NERFINISHED ⓘ Thomas Durant ⓘ |
| celebratedBy | public gatherings across the United States via telegraph announcement ⓘ |
| commemoratedBy |
annual reenactments at Promontory Summit
ⓘ
replica golden spikes ⓘ |
| commemorativeSpike |
Arizona mixed precious metals spike
ⓘ
Nevada silver spike ⓘ golden spike from David Hewes of San Francisco ⓘ second California gold spike ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| culturalMeaning |
symbol of American westward expansion
ⓘ
symbol of the completion of Manifest Destiny-era continental linkage ⓘ |
| date | 1869-05-10 ⓘ |
| formerAssociatedSiteName |
Golden Spike National Historical Park
ⓘ
surface form:
Golden Spike National Historic Site
|
| impact |
linked the eastern U.S. rail network with the Pacific coast by rail
ⓘ
reduced cross-country travel time in the United States from months to about a week ⓘ |
| location | Promontory Summit, Utah Territory ⓘ |
| numberOfCommemorativeSpikes | 4 ⓘ |
| organizedBy |
Central Pacific Railroad
ⓘ
Union Pacific Railroad ⓘ |
| presidedOverBy | Leland Stanford ⓘ |
| railConnectionType | coast-to-coast rail connection ⓘ |
| railroadEndpointEast |
Chicago–Omaha main line
ⓘ
surface form:
Union Pacific line from Omaha, Nebraska
|
| railroadEndpointWest | Central Pacific line from Sacramento, California ⓘ |
| railroadJoined |
Central Pacific Railroad
ⓘ
Union Pacific Railroad ⓘ |
| railroadProject | First Transcontinental Railroad ⓘ |
| relatedInfrastructure | Promontory Summit rail junction ⓘ |
| significance |
marked completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States
ⓘ
symbolically joined the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad ⓘ |
| spikeMaterial | gold ⓘ |
| symbolUsed |
golden spike
ⓘ
laurel wood railroad tie ⓘ |
| telegraphInvolved | yes ⓘ |
| telegraphMessageMeaning | announcement of completion of the transcontinental railroad ⓘ |
| telegraphMessageSent | DONE ⓘ |
| territorialStatusOfLocation | Utah Territory ⓘ |
| trackGauge | standard gauge ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Golden Spike ceremony Description of subject: The Golden Spike ceremony was the 1869 event at Promontory Summit, Utah, that marked the completion of the United States’ First Transcontinental Railroad by symbolically joining its eastern and western sections.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Golden Spike
this entity surface form:
Last Spike ceremony
subject surface form:
Golden Spike Ceremony
this entity surface form:
Last Spike Ceremony
subject surface form:
Golden Spike Ceremony
this entity surface form:
Golden Spike (artifact)