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

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Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad ReviewI became a fan of Walter Borneman (Alaska, 1812, The French and Indian War, Polk) after reading "1812," and have since then pre-ordered each of his books as they become available through Amazon. "Rival Rails" is another excellent, focused book from this established historian.
While touching on a century of railroad expansion and development in the vast southwest territory between Kansas City and the West Coast, this latest book from Borneman focuses on a relatively brief period from the 1860s to the 1880s during which a network of thousands of miles of railroad was built westward from Chicago and Kansas City to the west coast, with the dramatic accompanying population shifts and development of agricultural, mining, and other resources of these vast new western lands. Through these rail connections, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California were rapidly incorporated into the commercial, social, and political sphere of the greater United States. The arrival of the railroads dramatically transformed the West Coast. Once connected with Chicago, Los Angeles rapidly grew from a sleepy coastal town into one of America's great cities.
This expansion of a network of railroads westward was complex in its engineering challenges as well as in its political-financial processes, as entrepreneurs like Huntington, Gould, and Crocker, east coast and European investors, Congress, and even state and federal courts were regularly involved. Many players (some successful, some not) were involved in this expansion, and keeping these sorted out was a bit challenging as the book progressed. Fortunately, Borneman was kind enough to provide the reader not only with a series of railroad route maps within appropriate chapters, but also with two list, one of the Railroads and another of the Railroaders, just after the introduction. My coherent reading was greatly aided by my bookmarking to maintain easy reference to these list and to the maps. A substantial section of historical photographs adds to the enjoyment of the book
Though largely consolidated today, the trains still run over the rail beds originally laid down by these entrepreneurs, builders and engineers, and many, many thousands of workers who almost entirely by hand dug tunnels, built rail beds, and laid the tracks. Railroads are still vital to the U.S. economy (ask Warren Buffett), and Amtrack's ridership is at record levels. "Rival Rails" gives an excellent and readable overview of this brief but critical phase of U.S. development from a country largely operating east of the Mississippi to a country socially, politically, and commercially integrated from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast.Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad Overview

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