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"Pacific railroads History."
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The transcontinental railroad
Describes the history of the building of the first transcontinental railroad to cross the United States from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California. It looks at the men who envisioned the plan, the workers (mainly Chinese and Irish immigrants) who did the labor, and some of the hardships which they endured to complete the job. -- Source other than Library of Congress.
Book
Over the Range
Francaviglia looks anew at the geographical-historical context of the driving of the golden spike in May 1869. He gazes outward from the site of the transcontinental railroad's completion-the summit of a remote mountain range that extends south into the Great Salt Lake. The transportation corridor that for the first time linked America's coasts gave this distinctive region significance, but it anchored two centuries of human activity linked to the area's landscape.
Francaviglia brings to that larger story a geographer's perspective on place and society, a railroad enthusiast's knowledge of trains, a cartographic historian's understanding of the knowledge and experience embedded in maps, and a desert lover's appreciation of the striking basin-and-range landscape that borders the Great Salt Lake.
eBook
A primary source investigation of the Transcontinental Railroad
\"A book for middle school students about the transcontinental railroad\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Across the Continent
Copublished with the Utah State Historical Society. Affiliated with the Utah Division of State History, Utah Department of Heritage & Arts Andrew J. Russell is primarily known as the man who photographed the famous “East and West Shaking Hands” image of the Golden Spike ceremony on May 10, 1869. He also took nearly one thousand other images that document almost every aspect of the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Across the Continent is the most detailed study to date of the life and work of an often-overlooked but prolific artist who contributed immensely not only to documentation of the railroad but also to the nation’s visualization of the American West and, earlier, the Civil War. The central focus in the book is on the large body of work Russell produced primarily to satisfy the needs of the Union Pacific. Daniel Davis posits that this set of Russell’s photos is best understood not through one or a handful of individual images, but as a photographic archive. Taken as a whole, that archive shows that Russell intended for viewers never to forget who built the Union Pacific. His images celebrate working people—masons working on bridge foundations, freighters and their wagons, surveyors with their transits, engine crews posed on their engines, as well as tracklayers, laborers, cooks, machinists, carpenters, graders, teamsters, and clerks pushing paper. Russell contributed to a golden age of Western photography that visually introduced the American West to the nation, changing its public image from that of a Great American Desert to a place of apparently unlimited economic potential.
eBook
Canadian Pacific : the golden age of travel
\"The story of Canadian Pacific is one of the greatest stories in the world. Straddling the continent for more than a century and globe for more than fifty years, Canadian Pacific is inextricably linked with the history of Canada itself. In 1885, the company completed the construction of two thousand miles of railway system and linking the Atlantic to the Pacific. It then established fleets of vessels on both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, laying the foundation for a transportation route that allowed members of the British Empire to travel around the world. To enhance the travel experience, the company also constructed great castle-like hotels, including the Algonquin in St. Andrews, the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, and the Banff Springs Hotel in the Rockies, which themselves became landmarks. In this sumptuously illustrated history of a company whose story is integral to the Golden Age of Travel, Barry Lane recounts the history of Canadian Pacific, from the construction of the transcontinental railway to the development of the hotels and the building of the shipping line that linked Canada to the rest of the world.\"--From publisher.
Book
Gateway to the Northern Plains
Historian Carroll Engelhardt chronicles the story of Fargo and Moorhead's birth and growth when settlers from far and wide poured in, creating a diverse population and vital culture. There are many histories of major U.S. cities, but in Gateway to the Northern Plains Engelhardt reveals how the small cities of the plains have made their mark on the country.
eBook
Sunset limited
The only major U.S. railroad to be operated by westerners and the only railroad built from west to east, the Southern Pacific acquired a unique history and character. It also acquired a reputation, especially in California, as a railroad that people loved to hate. This magisterial history tells the full story of the Southern Pacific for the first time, shattering myths about the company that have prevailed to this day. A landmark account, Sunset Limited explores the railroad's development and influence—especially as it affected land settlement, agriculture, water policy, and the environment—and offers a new perspective on the tremendous, often surprising, role the company played in shaping the American West.
eBook
The Philosophy of Railways
When, in the late 1980s, the federal government initiated a plan to deregulate the Canadian railway system, lobby groups protested the betrayal of a national mandate. They asserted that the railway was founded to promote a sense of national identity, to provide access to isolated regions of the country, and to ensure a transnational exchange of goods and ideas. In The Philosophy of Railways , A.A. den Otter considers the relationship between nationalism and technology, and shows how the popular rhetoric surrounding the evolution of the Canadian Pacific Railway has mythologized the role of a private corporation and its technology. He questions the notion that the railways were built as an antidote to American manifest destiny, suggesting instead that the widespread adoption of railway transportation as a civilizing mission impelled Canadians to bow to technology's integrating effects, including confederation and closer ties with the United States.
The study begins by looking at the intellectual climate that spawned the Canadian railway idea, revealing that this idea was strongly influenced by a combination of British and American liberalism, a philosophy that saw technology as the means to destroy trade barriers. In fact, during the mid-nineteenth century, Canadians preferred to build transportation links to the American seaboard rather than to Saint John or Halifax, and this created a deep-seated alienation in the country's peripheral regions. Not only does den Otter include the Maritimes in his analysis, but he employs a careful reading of national documents including assembly debates, the private correspondence of major political figures, and newspaper commentary to contextualize the public debate.
By investigating the complex and ambiguous process by which the Canadian railway system both consolidated national identity and facilitated continental integration, The Philosophy of Railways establishes that isolationism, until relatively recently, was not the unilateral stance of those committed to the growth of the railway.
eBook