A Great and Shining Road

About this book

"Williams tells this rousing tale with verve and gusto. For all the railroad buffs and those who savor the lore of the Old West".-Library Journal. Williams has "done a marvelously imaginative job of writing. . . . He manages to capture the romance and color".-Choice. "Highly readable . . . because both text and illustrations have a human and humane touch about them. . . . [An] ebullient portrayal of the people and personalities involved in this great engineering accomplishment".-Christian Science Monitor. 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, financial wizardry, technological innovation, political courage and chicanery, and the heroism of thousands of laborers. John Hoyt Williams, a professor of history at Indiana State University, Terre Haute, is the author of Sam Houst…