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Westward by Rail The New Route to the East By William Rae Dust Jacket 1993 ed
Westward by Rail The New Route to the East By William Rae Dust Jacket 1993 391 pages Originally published 1870?
On May 10, 1869, the linking of two railroads between the Mississippi Valley and the Rocky Mountains at Promontory, Utah, ushered in a new era in the history of the United States. Safe, quick, and reliable transportation had finally subdued the hostile western landscape and opened up the American frontier.
That same year, William Fraser Rae, undertook the 3,000-mile journey by rail from New York to San Francisco to detail the nature and magnitude of the enterprise for the thousands who would soon follow.
Of the numerous routes available he chose what he considered to be the best. The first 900 miles to Chicago were covered quickly in the sumptuous accommodations of the famous Pullman Palace cars replete with drawing room, dining room and bedroom. Trains were then switched for the 500-mile jump to the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railway at Omaha. From there, 1,000 miles were traversed on the Union Pacific Railway to its connection with the Central Pacific Route at the historic site of Promontory. In contrast to the ease and comfort of travel by rail that far, the Central Pacific Route via the Great Salt Lake, the great American desert, and the Sierra Nevadas proved to be the roughest. Passengers were subjected to extreme changes in climate and then the nerve-wracking plunge from the Sierra Nevadas to Sacramento with engines turned off and brakes bolted tightly. The final leg of the journey, however, was taken by steamer to the Queen City of the Pacific Coast, San Francisco.
Throughout the trip, the author fully describes all the stops, whether the giant commercial metropolis of Chicago or the makeshift town of Elko. The passengers one might have expected to share a seat with are described here as well, from industrial tycoons and card sharks to farmers and Pawnee Indians adorned with the scalps of their victims. In short, all that could be seen by rail of nineteenth-century America is contained in Westward by Rail.
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