A Great and Shining Road

by John Hoyt Williams

Book Overview

The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads were officially joined on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah, with the driving of a golden spike. This historic ceremony marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. Spanning the Sierras and the "Great American Desert, " the tracks connected San Francisco to Council Bluffs, Iowa. A Great and Shining Road is the exciting story of a mammoth feat that called forth entrepreneurial daring,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812916689
• ISBN13: 9780812916683
• Release Date: March 1988
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 341 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Well-researched, interesting account

This book relates the economic, technological and political significance of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. The subject is complex, yet the author's narrative style, while not lacking in facts, makes this volume the most readable of the serious treatments of the subject. Another excellent recent title on this subject is "The Empire Express." I would not rate the book by Mr. Ambrose in the same class as either of these two, as the work treats the subject, I think, in a comparatively superficial and overly romantic manner.