Nothing Like It in the World

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Nothing Like It in the world

Author	Stephen E. Ambrose
Cover artist	unknown
Country	USA
Language	English
Subject(s)	Transcontinental Railroad History
Genre(s)	Non-fiction
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	August 2000
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	624 pp
ISBN	ISBN 978-0743204309
Followed by	Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Railway That United America

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Nothing Like It In the World was written by Stephen Ambrose, a writer of historical literature books, and is a #1 New York Times Bestseller about the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. The book is about the period of the railroad from 1863 to 1869. The Railroad spanned from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California. The book is very detailed and explains all the processes involved in building a railroad that is more than 1,700 miles long and spanning through 6 of the current United States of America.

The book has a very good account of the monetary point of view - from how it was spent and earned and the difficulties in not having enough money (the railroads were almost always in debt), to the multiple plots to gain more money through stocks and bonds by the different people of the railroad, as you could expect with a multi-billion dollar project.

The Railroads were, surprisingly enough paid by the government with bonds because of the importance's of the railroad(most likely without this financial help from the government the whole railroad would have been a failure)(both of the railroads were paid in bonds by the miles of track they laid in a certain period of time).

In fact there was a time when the CP flooded the market with its stocks to make extra and instant money off of them to buy more ties and other products like nails and snow sheds. The CP had a hard time getting money for a while due to the fact that all the mountains they had to blast through were slowing them down a lot (there were more than 30 mountains they had to blast through to get to the meeting point).

[edit] More about the book

The book focuses on engineer Grenville Dodge as well, and how he affects President Abraham Lincoln, General Sherman, and General U.S. Grant to support the railroad. He has the constant struggle of keeping others from changing the route of the railroad to suit themselves (especially The Big Four).

Ambrose also elaborates on the peoples working for the railroads, including the Irish, the Chinese (who were great workers but needed to have expensive foods like oysters brought in), the Mormons, and after the civil war former Union and Confederate soldiers, and former slaves. He tells all about the diet, working habits, working hours, and what the men did after work hours(which included killing, engaging with prostitutes, large amounts of theft, which were among other atrocities). Ambrose explains the Indian attacks, how they happened, why they were not stopped, and the problems made through them like stealing the workers food, and having the men nervous and ready to run, so that they would not concentrate on their work resulting in the fact that the railroads got less done than they should have each day.

Ambrose elaborates on how the southern pacific had to rebuild half of its bridges and replace most of its ties with harder wood than was originally used(cottonwood was originally used). He also tells how the snow sheds, bridges, and tunnels were made. Ambrose gives some of the telegraphs sent and received among the railroads. He sculpted part of the book to seem like a race between the two railroads as they meet. He does not add much about that day when the railroads were finished and the golden spike was added although the book is mostly very detailed in its description of all the other main topics.