Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and Its Tunnels

Great Book!

I just received this book two days ago and just by reading the first few pages of chapter 1 I was very impressed. Jill does an excellent job of depicting the time period and how difficult life was for many people during that age. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the Pennsylvania railroad, like me, and who is interested in the politics and economics of the late to early 19th and 20th century "big business". Hopefully, we will continue to see more and more writings like this.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Conquering Gotham a Must-read for PRR Buffs

Jill Jonnes does a wonderful job of describing the long and difficult saga concerning the digging of the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers, as well as the construction of old Pennsylvania Station in the middle of turn-of-the-century New York's infamous 'Tenderloin' district. Very well-written and easy to read, she discusses the travails Alexander Cassatt and subsequent PRR presidents had in dealing with New York's Tammany Hall, the shifting muck and silt under the Hudson River, which at times threatened to doom the project, and a number of other issues related to an undertaking that was described as one of the world's greatest engineering feats. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in railroading, New York City, or the Pennsylvania Railroad in particular.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Sandhogs

Loved it. ?my father was a sandhog in the 1930s and 40s. The book gave life to all the stories he told me about working underground.

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