- Hardcover: 216 pages
- Publisher: Indiana University Press (1 Nov 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0253335590
- ISBN-13: 978-0253335593
- Product Dimensions: 28.2 x 21.6 x 2.5 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,344,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
"It's [Middleton's] ability to clearly explain the intricacies of civil engineering to a general-interest audience that really makes Landmarks on the Iron Road soar... a must-read for anyone touched by the greatness of railroading." Trains
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Although railroad engineering began in England, railroad builders on this side of the Atlantic developed uniquely American ways suitable to the tasks of building a railroad system across the North American Continent. American civil engineers were unsurpassed in their ability to build railroads over great distances and across high mountain passes, to erect great bridges, or to bore tunnels of prodigious length. There is a remarkable story of the application of engineering to the building of a transportation system that civilised and settled America, and then supported an industrial revolution and created a world power. This is also the story of the development of the new profession of civil engineering in the 19th 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 civil engineers soon acquired the skills needed for the construction of railroads that could be rapidly and economically built. Their innovation and daring developed the methods and machines to transform tunnelling from hand drilling to black powder blasting art to a modern technology of shields and tunnel-boring machines. The needs of the railroads changed bridge design from trial and error art to science, fathered modern structural engineering practices, and advanced the development of structural materials. This book, for the first time, calls adequate attention to the physical plant over which railroads operate - the roadbed, track, bridges, and tunnels, subjects that are often taken for granted. It is a book no rail fan or student of engineering can be without.
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First Sentence
Central to the achievements of America's nineteenth-century era of railroad expansion were the great bridges of stone, wood, iron, and steel that carried the rails across the wide rivers and deep valleys of the North American continent. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Central to the achievements of America's nineteenth-century era of railroad expansion were the great bridges of stone, wood, iron, and steel that carried the rails across the wide rivers and deep valleys of the North American continent. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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2 reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
An outstanding work on railway civil engineering
14 Oct 1999
Format:Hardcover
This is a descriptive history of the major civil engineering projects in the development of North American railroads. Bill Middleton is unusually suited to the task at his hand. He is by academic training a civil engineer (R.P.I.), and a journalist (U. Wisc.). With a career that spans both military and academic times, he brings a special appreciation for this subject.
Landmarks of the Iron Road is something to be appreciated by civil engineers, railway historians, and those with an concern for the history of North American economic development. It is a careful collection of photographs and essays, supplemented with "how to find" these special locations. Middleton's book constitutes a "landmark" in the literary sense.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
wow!
13 Jan 2000
Format:Hardcover
If you have any sense of wonder in you at all, this book should capture it. It is amazing the lengths people will go to to accomplish their goals. The great engineering feats of American history are ample evidence, and many of those feats were accomplished by private capital via the railroads. The illustrations in this book are excellent and really show how much work and ingenuity went into these projects. This book makes a nice complement to the Routledge Historical Atlas of American Railroads, which is also new.
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