Though its completion was cause for celebration, the line was not a unique and prominent piece of infrastructure for very long. It was merely one line of track among many thousands of miles that crisscrossed the continent, and by 1900 only railroad buffs would even know which lines made up the original route.

Sabotage of railroad lines was occasionally discussed in connection with railroad labor disputes around the turn of the 20th century, and for that reason railroads being struck would often decide it was safest not to run any trains even if they had sufficient supervisory personnel to could do so.