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Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels | 
 enlarge | Author: Jill Jonnes
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 101709
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0670031585
Dewey Decimal Number: 385.314097471
EAN: 9780670031580
ASIN: 0670031585
Publication Date: April 19, 2007
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Condition: Good reading copy. May have slight scratches on cover. Overall very good condition. Orders processed and shipped within 24 hours. Choose EXPEDITED for fast delivery.
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Book Description
The epic story of the struggle to connect New York City to the rest of the nation The demolition of Penn Station in 1963 destroyed not just a soaring neoclassical edifice, but also a building that commemorated one of the last centurys great engineering featsthe construction of railroad tunnels into New York City. Now, in this gripping narrative, Jill Jonnes tells this fascinating storya high-stakes drama that pitted the money and will of the nations mightiest railroad against the corruption of Tammany Hall, the unruly forces of nature, and the machinations of labor agitators. In 1901, the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Alexander Cassatt, determined that it was technically feasible to build a system of tunnels connecting Manhattan to New Jersey and Long Island. Confronted by payoff-hungry politicians, brutal underground working conditions, and disastrous blowouts and explosions, it would take him nearly a decade to make Penn Station and its tunnels a reality. Set against the bustling backdrop of Gilded Age New York, Conquering Gotham will enthrall fans of David McCulloughs The Great Bridge and Ron Chernows Titan.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 A pearl of great price December 11, 2007
Jill Jonnes has written a very engaging book about the construction of the late great Penn Station and its tunnels. She captures the language and textures of the late 19th and early 20th century when this monumental undertaking took place. Not surprisingly, she focuses on the railroad king, Alexander Cassatt, who had the audacity to challenge Cornelius Vanderbilt's monopoly on the railroad lines entering Gotham. She charts the various attempts to bridge over and tunnel under the Hudson but best laid engineering attempts had been laid to waste. That was until Charles Jacobs entered on the scene, who had an ego to match Cassatt and the will to complete the tunnels in spite of all criticism to the contrary.
Jonnes also gets into the many political machinations that took place, not least of all Tammany Hall, which pretty much ruled the roost. But, Cassatt was determined not to coddle these power brokers, seeing to it that he built the tunnels honestly. I'm not sure how noble a man Cassatt was, since Jonnes is not overly critical of him. She paints him in heroic terms as she does Jacobs for daring to defy engineering convention and building tunnels through the primordial ooze that underlay the Hudson River.
She spends less time on the great station itself, noting that it was the grandest station of its day and giving the reader a dutiful description of its architect, William McKim, who was considered by many the leading architect of his day. He apparently formed a close working relationship with Cassatt but Jonnes prefers to focus on the engineers that made history by completing the tunnels that fed the station, eventually to be named after each of the engineers that were part of the project.
 Fascinating December 3, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved her book on Edison/Westinghouse and this one is great as well - - very well done - thanks !
great read November 30, 2007
definitely an enjoyable and readable book. The focus is definitely on the tunnel construction---less focused on Penn Station itself.
Great Glided-Age Gotham Tale October 1, 2007
Much has been written about the lamentable loss of the original Penn Station in the 1960s. The majestic building's turn-of-the-century birth is less well known. Jill Jonnes tells this fascinating Gilded Age story in "Conquering Gotham."
The Pennsylvania Railroad, one of the most powerful corporations of the time, had long been thwarted in its efforts to enter the New York market, being forced to ferry its passengers across the North (Hudson) River. Andrew Cassett, the PRR's visionary President, was determined to finally overcome the technical challenges posed by the mile-long river crossing and the equally formidable obstacles of New York's graft-infested Tammany politics.
Fortune graced Cassett in the form of the election of the reform Mayor Seth Low in 1901. A dour, disagreeable man ("A politician can say `no' and win a friend," wrote journalist Lincoln Steffens. "Low can lose one by saying 'yes.'"), Low would serve only one term. But the two-year break in Tammany's City Hall stranglehold was window enough for Cassett to win approval for his plan without paying any "boodle." And an audacious plan it was: crossing the North River, burrowing under the City and then crossing the East River, in order to link the LIRR (PRR's subsidiary) directly to Manhattan.
Most observers expected PRR to erect bridges to achieve the river crossings. Instead, Cassett's engineers elected to construct subaqueous tunnels - two under the North River and four beneath the East River. Tunnel construction was a harrowing proposition; the East River tunnels, in particular, were marred by several fatal mishaps. Even after completion, PRR's engineers were not sure the tunnels were safe enough to withstand the stresses of high-speed trains.
Penn Station would be located in the heart of Manhattan's "Tenderloin" district, also known as "Satan's Circus," because of its rampant vice. Cassett's point man on the site assemblage was Douglas Robinson, brother-in-law to President Teddy Roosevelt, who set out to quietly buy up the bars, brothels, shops and tenement buildings on the cheap. However, PRR's intentions soon became public, and costs mounted. The hardest bargainer: the pastor of a Catholic church, who walked away with a half-million dollars and a more central location for his parish. Total cost for the assemblage: more than $5 million.
Turn-of-the-century train stations were cathedrals of commerce. And in this regard, Charles McKim's Penn Station - inspired by the ancient Roman Empire -- set a new standard. McKim's masterpiece would guilt the Vanderbilts into building a new, more palatial Grand Central Terminal, the one we still admire today.
McKim would not live to see the project finished. Neither would Cassett nor the LIRR's President William Baldwin (dead at 41). But the creation of these men and others - Penn Station and its tunnels - would transform Manhattan, sharply easing the dense overcrowding by making broadscale suburban commuting viable.
Fascinating History July 2, 2007
If you love NYC history...then this is a book for you! The years of the late 19th Century and early 20th Century are illuminated in this carefulyy researched non-fiction account of an engineering marvel. Getting the Pennsylvania Railroad into the greatest city on earth, by tunneling under the Hudson reads like a dramatic novel, with an interesting cast of characters. It made me want to read more about the demise of Pennsylvania Station...so I found more books on that subject. Enjoy!!
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