2.12.2019
The Black Ascot, Todd - B -
This is the 21st novel in the Ian Rutledge series and sadly, it is not up to par. Rutledge is tasked with looking into a fatal motorcar accident that had taken place over a decade ago. The cast of characters have all survived the war, some better than others, but all changed. The authors always superbly depict the England of a century ago through the eyes of the battered psyche of the shell-shocked Rutledge. They detail the impact of the war on a society that never comes to grip with the horror that consumed them. Occasionally, they stumble with a weak mystery, and that is the case here. That said, this remains a favorite series.
2.07.2019
Nothing Like It In The World: The Men Who Built The Transcontinental Railroad 1863 - 1869, Ambrose - B
Only winning the war and freeing the slaves were more important accomplishments for the US than the building of the Central and Union Pacific Railroads. It required so many laborers, 15,000 for both, that only generals from the war were capable of managing such vast numbers. All of the construction materials were hauled in and it was man and animal power that conquered the mountains and distances of the world's first transcontinental railroad. The federal government sponsored the construction and pitted the railroads against each other, rewarding the one that laid the most track.
The young, rambunctious nation wanted to build a railroad across the country and the need was obvious. California could be reached by wagon, horse or on foot from Missouri in six months. A trip around the Cape took longer; a traverse of Panama was quicker, but hardly fast, safe or convenient. The question was a northern, central, or southern route. California took the lead in espousing a central route and its chief engineer, Theodore Judah, planned accordingly. He organized the Central Pacific Railroad of California, raised funds and began to survey how to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains. The former Illinois Central lawyer and 1860 Republican candidate for president ran on a platform enthusiastically backing a transcontinental railroad. In July 1862, Lincoln signed the bill authorizing the Union Pacific Railroad to build from the Missouri west and the Central Pacific to build from Sacramento east. A year later, he determined that the starting point for the Union Pacific would be Omaha. Out west, the first track was laid in in 1864 in Sacramento. The CP was almost completely owned by Leland Stanford, Charlie Crocker, C.P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins (the Big Four). The UP did not lay any track until the war was over and both money and manpower were freed up. The route chosen was west from Omaha north of the Platte through Wyoming and southwest into Utah.* One of the early impediments to progress was the hostility of the plains Indians. The US Army was charged with clearing the way for the surveyors, graders and track layers.
Tackling the granite walls of the Sierra Nevada's was a momentous task requiring more manpower than was available to the CP. Charlie Crocker suggested using the Chinese, notwithstanding the fact that they were universally despised, mistreated, denied every conceivable right and thought too small at 120 pounds and in general, shorter than 5 feet. They were such good workers that seven of the nine thousand CP workers at the end of 1865 were 'coolies'. The hardest work in the mountains, involving grading and tunneling with dynamite was done by the Chinese. Thirteen tunnels blasted by hand were necessary to cross the Sierras. It is generally conceded that the CP could not have been built without the Chinese.
Most of the workers on the UP were veterans, many of them Irish, and they literally charged across Nebraska in 1866. They reached the 100th meridian in October, a distance of 267 miles from Omaha. By year's end, they were at 305 miles and running a passenger service from Omaha to Kearney. Congress adjusted the Railroad Act, allowing monies to flow earlier, and declared a race between the two companies to meet at a point to be determined later. The CP, although still in California, had laid track at over 5,000 feet above sea level.
In 1867, the UP reached Wyoming and once again, the Cheyenne and Sioux were a concern. That May, they raided, killed, stole livestock, ripped up track and even managed to derail a train. Surveyors who wandered far and wide were particularly vulnerable. The railroad continued relentlessly and reached Cheyenne by the end of the year. The UP was now 500 miles from Omaha. While the UP could do a mile per day, daily progress by the CP was sometimes measured in inches. But they achieved their triumph in November, 1867 when they pierced the eastern end of the Summit Tunnel and looked into Nevada. The following year saw a race to get as far east, or west, as possible. It was obvious that the meeting point would be somewhere in Utah and likely in 1869. The UP made it to the Wyoming-Utah border at year's end. Although still thousands of feet above sea level, the CP found flat land in Nevada and traversed it in 1868 reaching the Utah border. Because the government released cash, bonds and land to the railroads based on mileage completed, the CP was always at a disadvantage. Even though higher elevation track was paid at a higher rate, the CP struggled to lay uninterrupted track and the land it received was seldom as valuable as the land the UP was able to sell in Nebraska. The Big Four kept the CP afloat and desperately wished to push as far east as possible.
The meeting point was Promontory, Utah in May, 1869. The picture showing the two trains, covered in men and facing each other, is one of the most iconic of the century. America on the cusp of the industrial revolution was transformed. The railroad was an engineering masterpiece. Financially, the Credit Mobilier company created to construct the UP was a font of corruption, and the scandal attached to its name was the greatest of the century. The brilliant, slap-dash, brutal, corrupt and utterly visionary project was quintessentially American.
*A hundred years later, armed with every available engineering technology, the builders of I-80 took the exact same route.
The young, rambunctious nation wanted to build a railroad across the country and the need was obvious. California could be reached by wagon, horse or on foot from Missouri in six months. A trip around the Cape took longer; a traverse of Panama was quicker, but hardly fast, safe or convenient. The question was a northern, central, or southern route. California took the lead in espousing a central route and its chief engineer, Theodore Judah, planned accordingly. He organized the Central Pacific Railroad of California, raised funds and began to survey how to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains. The former Illinois Central lawyer and 1860 Republican candidate for president ran on a platform enthusiastically backing a transcontinental railroad. In July 1862, Lincoln signed the bill authorizing the Union Pacific Railroad to build from the Missouri west and the Central Pacific to build from Sacramento east. A year later, he determined that the starting point for the Union Pacific would be Omaha. Out west, the first track was laid in in 1864 in Sacramento. The CP was almost completely owned by Leland Stanford, Charlie Crocker, C.P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins (the Big Four). The UP did not lay any track until the war was over and both money and manpower were freed up. The route chosen was west from Omaha north of the Platte through Wyoming and southwest into Utah.* One of the early impediments to progress was the hostility of the plains Indians. The US Army was charged with clearing the way for the surveyors, graders and track layers.
Tackling the granite walls of the Sierra Nevada's was a momentous task requiring more manpower than was available to the CP. Charlie Crocker suggested using the Chinese, notwithstanding the fact that they were universally despised, mistreated, denied every conceivable right and thought too small at 120 pounds and in general, shorter than 5 feet. They were such good workers that seven of the nine thousand CP workers at the end of 1865 were 'coolies'. The hardest work in the mountains, involving grading and tunneling with dynamite was done by the Chinese. Thirteen tunnels blasted by hand were necessary to cross the Sierras. It is generally conceded that the CP could not have been built without the Chinese.
Most of the workers on the UP were veterans, many of them Irish, and they literally charged across Nebraska in 1866. They reached the 100th meridian in October, a distance of 267 miles from Omaha. By year's end, they were at 305 miles and running a passenger service from Omaha to Kearney. Congress adjusted the Railroad Act, allowing monies to flow earlier, and declared a race between the two companies to meet at a point to be determined later. The CP, although still in California, had laid track at over 5,000 feet above sea level.
In 1867, the UP reached Wyoming and once again, the Cheyenne and Sioux were a concern. That May, they raided, killed, stole livestock, ripped up track and even managed to derail a train. Surveyors who wandered far and wide were particularly vulnerable. The railroad continued relentlessly and reached Cheyenne by the end of the year. The UP was now 500 miles from Omaha. While the UP could do a mile per day, daily progress by the CP was sometimes measured in inches. But they achieved their triumph in November, 1867 when they pierced the eastern end of the Summit Tunnel and looked into Nevada. The following year saw a race to get as far east, or west, as possible. It was obvious that the meeting point would be somewhere in Utah and likely in 1869. The UP made it to the Wyoming-Utah border at year's end. Although still thousands of feet above sea level, the CP found flat land in Nevada and traversed it in 1868 reaching the Utah border. Because the government released cash, bonds and land to the railroads based on mileage completed, the CP was always at a disadvantage. Even though higher elevation track was paid at a higher rate, the CP struggled to lay uninterrupted track and the land it received was seldom as valuable as the land the UP was able to sell in Nebraska. The Big Four kept the CP afloat and desperately wished to push as far east as possible.
The meeting point was Promontory, Utah in May, 1869. The picture showing the two trains, covered in men and facing each other, is one of the most iconic of the century. America on the cusp of the industrial revolution was transformed. The railroad was an engineering masterpiece. Financially, the Credit Mobilier company created to construct the UP was a font of corruption, and the scandal attached to its name was the greatest of the century. The brilliant, slap-dash, brutal, corrupt and utterly visionary project was quintessentially American.
*A hundred years later, armed with every available engineering technology, the builders of I-80 took the exact same route.
Charlesgate Confidential, Von Doviak - B
This is a fabulous novel set in Boston with a story featuring related events in 1946, 1986, and 2014. The central character is the Charlesgate in the Back Bay. Built in 1891, it has been a luxury hotel, a flophouse, a women's dorm for BU, a flophouse again, an Emerson College dorm and most recently, a luxury condominium building. The starting point is a 1946 robbery of a museum that featured a few murders and paintings that have never been found. The pursuit of those paintings, suspected by all to be hidden in the Charlesgate, is the unifying thread. Throw in some Red Sox flops ('46 and '86) and you have an enjoyable read.
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