Kirkus Reviews
"A compelling, comprehensive account of one of history's greatest
construction projects. On May 10, 1869, when telegraph lines carried
the news that the transcontinental railroad was finally complete,
cannons in New York City and San Francisco roared, fire alarms went
off in major cities across the country, and tens of thousands of
people poured into the streets to celebrate. Similar festivities
might well accompany the publication of this remarkable book. Bain
(Sitting in Darkness: Americans in the Philippines, 1984), who
spent 14 years in research, moves with impressive felicity through
this complex, fascinating subject. He focuses the light of his
considerable intelligence on a vast array of topics, brightly
illuminating the daunting construction problems (one tunnel in the
high Sierra was 1600 feet long), the alliances (quickly formed,
quickly broken) of politicians and entrepreneurs, the pervasive
corruption of Gilded Age public officials (a "babble of special
interests," Bain calls it), the tragic relocations (and eventual
decimation) of the Plains Indians, the exploitation of construction
workers, the genesis of legedary western towns (Laramie and Cheyenne
among others). With disinterested clarity, he portrays rail barons
Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and many others --
and sketches some supporting actors whose names would later be known
in other contexts: Henry M. Stanley (the reporter who found Dr
Livingston), George A. Custer, and Mark Twain. Bain chronicles the
egregious excesses of the builders: the acres of prairie set afire
for nocturnal entertainment, the carloads of easterners who wanted to
shoot buffalo for sport, the tens of thousands of dollars that
changed hands when decisions were made. Humorous and ironic moments
abound as well: the friendly Pawnee liked to joyride on the roofs of
boxcars; "a fresh importation of strumpets" arrived for duty in
Julesburg, Colorado; and some Chinese workers are dissuaded from
laboring in the desert by tales of a 100-foot long snake whose meal
of preference is Chinese.
Empire Express is a brilliant work, a stunning fusion of splendid scholarship and graceful writing."