Riding the Rails in the USA: Trains in American Life (Transportation in America)

Preachers railed against it: "Traveling at speeds up to 20 miles per hour went against the Lord's plan!" Doctors told their patients that traveling on it would cause serious physical and mental ailments, including the boiling of the blood. Newspapers cried out, "It is a topsy-turvy, harum-scarum whirligig!" But it didn't matter: America loved the train and the freedom of movement that came with it. Riding the Rails in America traces the dynamic relationship of America with the train, showing how the railroad was the single largest influence on the development of the nation's history and economy as it became possible to move freight and people farther and faster than ever before. Explores the impact of trains in the United States as they allowed settlers to move West in large numbers and get needed supplies, helped farmers to move goods to market, and provided transportation for commuters. "When I hear the iron horse make the hills echo with his snort like thunder, shaking the earth with his feet, and breathing fire and smoke from his nostrils," wrote American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, "it seems as if the earth had got a race now worthy to inhabit it."