"Riveting...A great read, full of colorful characters and
outrageous confrontations back when the west was still wild."
--George R.R. Martin A propulsive and panoramic history of one of
the most dramatic stories never told--the greatest railroad war of
all time, fought by the daring leaders of the Santa Fe and the Rio
Grande to seize, control, and create the American West. It is
difficult to imagine now, but for all its gorgeous scenery, the
American West might have been barren tundra as far as most
Americans knew well into the 19th century. While the West was
advertised as a paradise on earth to citizens in the East and
Midwest, many believed the journey too hazardous to be
worthwhile--until 1869, when the first transcontinental railroad
changed the face of transportation. Railroad companies soon became
the rulers of western expansion, choosing routes, creating
brand-new railroad towns, and building up remote settlements like
Santa Fe, Albuquerque, San Diego, and El Paso into proper cities.
But thinning federal grants left the routes incomplete, an
opportunity that two brash new railroad men, armed with private
investments and determination to build an empire across the
Southwest clear to the Pacific, soon seized, leading to the
greatest railroad war in American history. In From the River to the
Sea, bestselling author John Sedgwick recounts, in vivid and
thrilling detail, the decade-long fight between General William J.
Palmer, the Civil War hero leading the "little family" of his Rio
Grande, and William Barstow Strong, the hard-nosed manager of the
corporate-minded Santa Fe. What begins as an accidental rivalry
when the two lines cross in Colorado soon evolves into an all-out
battle as each man tries to outdo the other--claiming exclusive
routes through mountains, narrow passes, and the richest silver
mines in the world; enlisting private armies to protect their land
and lawyers to find loopholes; dispatching spies to gain
information; and even using the power of the press and incurring
the wrath of the God-like Robber Baron Jay Gould--to emerge
victorious. By the end of the century, one man will fade into
anonymity and disgrace. The other will achieve unparalleled
success--and in the process, transform a sleepy backwater of thirty
thousand called "Los Angeles" into a booming metropolis that will
forever change the United States. Filled with colorful characters
and high drama, told at the speed of a locomotive, From the River
to the Sea is an unforgettable piece of American history "that
seems to demand a big-screen treatment" (The New Yorker).
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