The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863 - 1869
This is the epic drama of the daring men who connected an open, vast, and dangerous land by rail, forging its continental nationhood. The Union had won the Civil War; slavey was abolished. Lincoln, an early champion of railroads, would not live to see the next great achievement. It took brains, muscle, and sweat in quantities and scope never before ventured and required engineers and surveyors willing to lose their lives in the wilderness. The government pitted the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution.
Nothing like this great railroad had been seen in the world when the last spike was driven in a Promontory Peak, Utah, in 1869, as the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific joined tracks. Ambrose writes about the brave men who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the nation one.
