Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad

A dramatic history of the construction of America's first transcontinental railroad chronicles three seminal decades in American history, describing the vast enterprise to build a railroad from Missouri to the Pacific in terms of the remarkable expansion of the United States of America. 30,000 first printing.

David Haward Bain spent fourteen years researching and writing this book. He is the author of three previous works of well-reviewed non-fiction. His essays have been published in Smithsonian and American Heritage, and he reviews regularly for The New York Times Book Review and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Bain teaches at Middlebury College, works with the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and lives in Orwell, Vermont.