In this New York Times bestseller, Stephen Ambrose brings to life the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad, from the men who financed it to the engineers and surveyors who risked their lives to the workers who signed on for the dangerous job.
Nothing Like It in the World gives the account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage. It is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad--the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks.
The U.S. government pitted two companies--the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads--against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise, with its huge expenditure of brainpower, muscle, and sweat, comes vibrantly to life.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
ONE Picking the Route 1830-1860
TWO Getting to California 1848-1859
THREE The Birth of the Central Pacific 1860-1862
FOUR The Birth of the Union Pacific 1862-1864
FIVE Judah and the Elephant 1862-1864
SIX Laying Out the Union Pacific Line 1864-1865
SEVEN The Central Pacific Attacks the Sierra Nevada 1865
EIGHT The Union Pacific Across Nebraska 1866
NINE The Central Pacific Assaults the Sierra 1866
TEN The Union Pacific to the Rocky Mountains 1867
ELEVEN The Central Pacific Penetrates the Summit 1867
TWELVE The Union Pacific Across Wyoming 1868
THIRTEEN Brigham Young and the Mormons Make the Grade 1868
FOURTEEN The Central Pacific Goes Through Nevada 1868
FIFTEEN The Railroads Race into Utah January 1-April 10, 1869
SIXTEEN To the Summit April 11-May 7, 1869
SEVENTEEN Done May 8-10, 1869
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Maps
From Chicago to Omaha
Nebraska
Wyoming
Nevada
Utah
California
Stephen Ambrose has done it again....Ambrose should be read as much for his muscular prose and talent to get at the heart of the matter as for his research.--Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today Historian
This magnificent tale of high finance, low finagling, and workers hacking through 2,000 miles is magnificently told.--Time, naming Nothing Like It in the World as the #1 Nonfiction Book of the Year
Stephen E. Ambrose was a renowned historian and acclaimed author of more than thirty books. Among his New York Times bestsellers are Nothing Like It in the World, Citizen Soldiers, Band of Brothers, D-Day - June 6, 1944, and Undaunted Courage. Dr. Ambrose was a retired Boyd Professor of History at the University of New Orleans and a contributing editor for the Quarterly Journal of Military History.
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date: November 06, 2001
ISBN: 9780743203173
432 pages
paperback