They Built the West: An Epic of Rails and and 50 similar items

Ex-library, usual library markings, NO JACKET, book has been rebound, text clean, binding tight, edge wear, 1934, D Appleton Century, 569 pages, hardcover Additional Details ------------------------------ Product description: This volume is a dramatic account of the rise of the large cities in America's West, particularly as they developed in the wake of of the great wave of railroad enterprise following the Civil War. The author sets forth the personalities of the builders who, though sometimes piratical in their means, transformed the frontier into civilization. Palmer of the Kansas Pacific, Strong of the Santa Fe, Huntington, Crocker, Stanford and Hopkins of the Central Pacific, Durant and the Ames Brothers of the Union Pacific - these men and their followers were among the sturdiest and most effective representatives of rugged individualism, at its best an at its worst. These picturesque men and others such as Darius Mills, the elder Hearst, Sen. William Clark, E. H. Harriman, and James J. Hill form a gallery of memorable portraits. Their vision brought forth the rails that created the cities: Colorado Springs, Denver, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle and Spokane -- each receives a separate chapter that allows the reader to understand the conflict that shaped these cities and gave them their unique personalities. Illustrated with black and white photos. 569 pages with index.