Graced with full-page color paintings based on historic photographs, this history traces the building of the railroad from Theodore Judah's dream to the driving of the Golden Spike.
Focusing mainly on April 28th, 1869, the day Charles Crocker’s Central Pacific crew laid more than ten miles of track, the book’s description of the process of laying track evokes the sights, sounds, and “feel” of a monumental day’s work on the railroad—and shows how Irish and Chinese laborers, by working together despite their differences, learned to respect each other.
