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The race underground : Boston, New York, and the incredible rivalry that built America's first subway

Title: The race underground : Boston, New York, and the incredible rivalry that built America's first subway / Doug Most.
Author: Most, Doug.
Publication: New York, N.Y. : St. Martin's Press, 2014.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Not available - Please for assistance.	Text	Use in library	HE4491.B782 M67 2014	Off-site

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Details

Description

viii, 404 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

In the late nineteenth century, as cities grew more congested, the streets became clogged with plodding horse-drawn carts. When the great Blizzard of 1888 crippled the Northeast, a solution had to be found. Two brothers from a prominent family-- Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York-- each pursued the dream of his city digging the first American subway, and the race was on. The competition played out in an era not unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America's place in the world. The story is peopled with the famous, like Boss Tweed, Grover Cleveland, and Thomas Edison, and the not-so-famous, like the countless "sandhogs" who shoveled, hoisted, and blasted into the earth, some losing their lives in the process. Doug Most chronicles the science of the subway, looks at the fears people overcame about traveling underground, and tells a story as exciting as any in the pages of U.S. history. This is a great American saga of two rival cities, their rich, powerful, and sometimes corrupt interests, and an invention that changed the lives of millions. --From publisher description.

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages [365]-389) and index.

Contents

Two cities, one crisis -- The visionaries. A secret subway ; Where spirits, the devil, and the dead live ; A family for the ages ; History made in Richmond -- The blizzard and the billionaires. The blizzard that changed everything ; New York City's Moses ; William Whitney's missed opportunity ; The engineer and the piano maker ; The rise and fall of Henry Whitney -- Tragedies, triumphs. Bidding to build history ; Meehanville ; Boom! ; "First car off the Earth!" ; The brains, the builder, and the banker ; Playing with dynamite ; October 27, 1904.

ISBN

9780312591328 (hardcover : alkaline paper)
0312591322 (hardcover : alkaline paper)
9781466842007 (e-book) (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2013030525
99957558472

OCLC

ocn846545926
846545926
SCSB-5734580

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries