Landmarks on the Iron Road

"It is a remarkable story: the building of a transportation system that civilized and settled America, and then supported an industrial revolution and created a world power."--BOOK JACKET. "This is also the story of the development of the new profession of civil engineering in the nineteenth century. Our engineers were schooled at West Point, the technical schools in Europe, or technical institutes in America, while some were self-taught: these early practitioners soon acquired the skills needed for the construction of railroads that could be rapidly and economically built. The needs of the railroads changed bridge design from a trial-and-error art to a science, fathered modern structural-engineering practices, and advanced the development of structural materials."--BOOK JACKET. "This book, for the first time, calls adequate attention to the physical plant over which railroads operate - the roadbeds, tracks, bridges, and tunnels, subjects that are often taken for granted. It is a book no rail fan or student of engineering can be without."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.