Great Railroad Tunnels of North America

Great Railroad Tunnels of North America PDF Author: William Lowell Putnam
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786489200
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Describing and detailing the boring of major railroad tunnels throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico, this book covers the period from the creation of Virginia's Blue Ridge Tunnel in the 1850s to Copper Canyon's Continental and El Descanso tunnels in the early 1960s. Other notable tunnels featured here include Massachusetts' notoriously expensive and slow-progressing Hoosac Tunnel; Colorado's rail and water Moffat Tunnel; Montana's Flathead Tunnel; and several major tunnels along the Canadian Pacific's main line. In addition to providing details on the tunnels, the author considers the reasons they were created, their engineers, and their use. The book includes more than 50 period and contemporary photos. A glossary explains concepts related to railroad construction and maintenance.

Conquering Gotham

Conquering Gotham PDF Author: Jill Jonnes
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101218894
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Book Description
“Superb. [A] first-rate narrative” (The Wall Street Journal) about the controversial construction of New York’s beloved original Penn Station and its tunnels, from the author of Eiffel's Tower and Urban Forests As bestselling books like Ron Chernow's Titan and David McCullough's The Great Bridge affirm, readers are fascinated with the grand personalities and schemes that populated New York at the close of the nineteenth century. Conquering Gotham re- creates the riveting struggle waged by the great Pennsylvania Railroad to build Penn Station and the monumental system of tunnels that would connect water-bound Manhattan to the rest of the continent by rail. Historian Jill Jonnes tells a ravishing tale of snarling plutocrats, engineering feats, and backroom politicking packed with the most colorful figures of Gilded Age New York. Conquering Gotham will be featured in an upcoming episdoe of PBS's American Experience.

Ghosts of Gold Mountain

Ghosts of Gold Mountain PDF Author: Gordon H. Chang
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 1328618579
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Book Description
A groundbreaking, breathtaking history of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history until now.

The Blue Ridge Tunnel

The Blue Ridge Tunnel PDF Author: Mary E. Lyons
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625849524
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
The true story of the construction of the historic Crozet railroad tunnel—as seen through the eyes of three Irish immigrant families who helped build it. In one of the greatest engineering feats of the time, Claudius Crozet led the completion of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Tunnel in 1858. More than a century and a half later, the tunnel stands as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, but the stories and lives of those who built it are the true lasting triumph. Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Hunger poured into America resolved to find something to call their own. They would persevere through life in overcrowded shanties and years of blasting through rock to see the tunnel to completion. In this intriguing history, Mary E. Lyons follows three Irish families in their struggle to build Crozet’s famed tunnel—and their American dream. Includes photos and illustrations

Tunnels, Nitro and Convicts

Tunnels, Nitro and Convicts PDF Author: Stephen R. Little
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1452067716
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 42

Book Description
Still suffering the devastation of the Civil war that ended only ten years earlier, North Carolina shipped prison inmates from Raleigh to build the Mountain Division of the western North Carolina railroad. Some amazing and astonishing events occurred from 1875 through 1879 as this mountain railroad (3 miles straight-line distance, requiring 9+ miles of track) was pushed up the eastern continental divide. Six tunnels were excavated, from 89 to 1,800 feet long, each 15 feet tall. For open cuts, solid rock was cracked by dousing cold mountain water on roaring fires. The first use in the southeastern U.S. of a new product called Nobel's Blasting Oil (now called nitroglycerin!) was on the project. It was mixed with sawdust and corn meal, making nitroglycerin mash. A very heavy wood-burning locomotive was picked up off the tracks by the convicts and pushed several miles overland to the top of the mountain to help dig out the longest tunnel. The most common tool used was a flat rock held in the strong hands of the convicts to dig and spread dirt as they prepared the flat path needed to lay crossties for the rails. Tunnels, Nitro and Convicts condenses the incredible history of the most ambitious earth-moving, mountain-conquering project in the United States as of the 1870s into an engaging, easy-to-read story. The fascinating and compelling intertwining of long dark caves, blasting and cracking of massive rocks, the first use of nitroglycerin in the southeastern United States, and pushing a big locomotive several miles through the woods up a mountain ... all by hundreds of convicts who worked under severe conditions with the most basic tools ... makes this true account of post-civil war railroad history a story you must read!
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