Railroads Past & Present: The Railroad That Never Was - Vanderbilt, Morgan and the South Pennsylvania Railroad (HYL-00019)

Product No.: HYL-00019

Title: Railroads Past & Present: The Railroad That Never Was - Vanderbilt, Morgan and the South Pennsylvania Railroad
Author(s): Harwood Jr, Herbert H.
Illustrator(s): N/A
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253355485

Condition: New

Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket: New
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Year: 2010

Features: 168 Pages with Black/White Photos & Maps.

Herbert H. Harwood, Jr., tells the story of one of the most infamous railroad construction projects of the late 19th century. This 200-mile line through Pennsylvania's most challenging mountain terrain was intended to form the heart of a new trunk line from the East Coast to Pittsburgh and the Midwest.

Conceived in 1881 by William H. Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and a group of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia industrialists, the South Pennsylvania Railroad was intended to break the Pennsylvania Railroad's near-monopoly in the region. The line was within a year of opening when J. P. Morgan brokered a peace treaty that aborted the project and helped bolster his position in the world of finance.

The railroad right of way and its tunnels sat idle for 60 years before coming to life in the late 1930s as the original section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Based on original letters, documents, diaries, and newspaper reports, The Railroad That Never Was uncovers the truth behind this mysterious railway.