Rival Rails The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad

Walter R. Borneman

eBook - 2010

From acclaimed historian Walter R. Borneman comes a dazzling account of the battle to build America's transcontinental rail lines. Rival Rails is an action-packed epic of how an empire was born--and the remarkable men who made it happen.After the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, the rest of the country was up for grabs, and the race was on. The prize: a better, shorter, less snowy route through the corridors of the American Southwest, linking Los Angeles to Chicago. In Rival Rails, Borneman lays out in compelling detail the sectional rivalries, contested routes, political posturing, and ambitious business dealings that unfolded as an increasing number of lines pushed their way across the country. Borneman brin...gs to life the legendary business geniuses and so-called robber barons who made millions and fought the elements--and one another--to move America, including William Jackson Palmer, whose leadership of the Denver and Rio Grande... more