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

Nothing Like It in the Worldgives the account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage. It is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad -- the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks.The U.S. government pitted two companies -- the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads -- against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise, with its huge expenditure of brainpower, muscle, and sweat, comes vibrantly to life.

Stephen E.Ambrose is the author of The Wild Blue, Citizen Soldiers, Undaunted Courage, D-Day, and Band of Brothers, as well as biographies of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon. He is the director emeritus of the Eisenhower Center and founder of The National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. He lives in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and Helena, Montana.