Nothing Like It In The World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869

Ambrose, Stephen E.

ISBN 10: 0684846098 / ISBN 13: 9780684846095

Published by Simon & Schuster, New York, 2000

About this Item

First Edition - first printing. Dust jacket covered with mylar. Book is clean and tight. Slight water marks on bottom outer page edges. 431 pages with index.

Seller Inventory # 000349

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Nothing Like It In The World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684846098
• ISBN 13: 9780684846095
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Western Americana

About this title

Synopsis

The Union had won the Civil War; slavery was abolished. Lincoln, an early champion of railroads, would not live to see the next great achievment. 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; men who had commanded and obeyed in war; workers from China, Ireland, and the defeated South; and capitalists betting their money for possible profit. The government pitted the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the east through Panama, around South America, or lugged across the country. The railroad was the last great building project to be done by hand: excavating dirt, cutting through ridges, filling gorges, blasting tunnels. Nothing like this great railroad had been seen in the world when the last spike, a golden one, was driven in at Promontory Peak, Utah, in 1869, as the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific joined tracks. Ambrose writes with power and eloquence about the brave men who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the nation one.

About the Author

Stephen E. Ambrose, leading World War II historian, was the author of numerous books on history including the Number 1 bestselling BAND OF BROTHERS, D-DAY (on which SAVING PRIVATE RYAN was based) PEGASUS BRIDGE and WILD BLUE. He is founder of the Eisenhower Center and the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. He died in 2002.