Rails West! — Franklin Carter

THEY BUILT A RAILROAD -- AND A NATION!

After the bloodshed of the Civil War, America turned West ...The future of the nation lay in waiting, and so the race began to build a railroad to carry settlers across the Plains to the Pacific. This is the story of the men and women who made this dream reality.

The Union Pacific, the Great Northern, the Atchison, , Topeka and Santa Fe-the names live on in legend. They made America one nation, spanning the continent on gleaming rails of steel. But every foot of rail had a price. Not just in gold and silver, but in the challenge to survive blizzards, floods, disease, and deadly Sioux Indian raids. And as the rails pushed westward, so the saga grew.

From wealthy magnates who gambled their fortunes on the grand enterprise to hard-living laborers who drove the spikes, here is the dramatic story of their lives and loves, the struggles and triumphs of the railroad builders-who opened the door to a new continent.