Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and Its Tunnels

Authors: Jonnes, Jill
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
BISAC/Subject: HIS036040, ARC005070, TRA004010
ISBN: 9781101218891, Related ISBNs: 0143113240, 0670031585, 1101218894, 9780143113249, 9780670031580
Classification: Non-Fiction
Number of pages: 384,
Audience: General/trade
Synopsis: “Superb. [A] first-rate narrative” (The Wall Street Journal) about the controversial construction of New York’s beloved original Penn Station and its tunnels, from the author of Eiffel's Tower and Urban Forests

As bestselling books like Ron Chernow's Titan and David McCullough's The Great Bridge affirm, readers are fascinated with the grand personalities and schemes that populated New York at the close of the nineteenth century. Conquering Gotham re- creates the riveting struggle waged by the great Pennsylvania Railroad to build Penn Station and the monumental system of tunnels that would connect water-bound Manhattan to the rest of the continent by rail. Historian Jill Jonnes tells a ravishing tale of snarling plutocrats, engineering feats, and backroom politicking packed with the most colorful figures of Gilded Age New York.

Conquering Gotham will be featured in an upcoming episdoe of PBS's American Experience.
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