Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow

In February 1854 the first railroad reached the Missippi; by the end of the nineteenth century five major transcontinental railroads linked the Atlantic and the Pacific. This is the story of that undertaking, complete with heroes and villians, laborers, intrepid engineers, avaricious bankers, stock manipulators, corrupt politicians, the displacement of an entire race of people, and millions of buffalo.