Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad (U) - SKU 138095

beginning In 1842 With A Visionary's Dream To Span The Continent With A Single Railroad Line, Empire Express Captures Three Dramatic Decades In Which The United States Effectively Doubled In Size, Fought Three Wars, And Began To Discover A New National Identity. Culminating In The Driving Of The Golden Spike In The Utah Desert In 1869, Which Touched Off A Frenzy Of Celebration, The Narrative Ends In 1873 In Washington Under The Capitol Rotunda, With The Crushing Fall Of A Popular Politician And The Exposure Of A Powerful, Hidden Railroad Lobby - A Scandal, Which, For Half A Year, Dominated The Press And The Country's Imagination. david Lavender a Vast Panorama, Meticulously Researched. Bain Never Forgets That Two Strenuously Competitive Companies Were Doing The Building, One Headed East, The Other West. Every Internal Trouble The Builders Faced-grimly Inhospitable Terrain, Avalanches, Indian Battles, Keeping Track Of Supplies, And Money, Always Money-was Played Out Against This Imperative Need To Hurry, Hurry, Hurry. You Couldn't Even Take Out Time To Hate Your Neighbor, And What A Contentious Bunch They Were, In Bain's Definitive Telling Of The Tale. author Of the Way To The Western Sea And The Great Persuader