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 enlarge | Author: Jill Jonnes
Creator: David Drummond
Publisher: Tantor Media
Category: Book
List Price: $34.99
Buy New: $9.97
You Save: $25.02 (72%)
New (17) Used (7) from $9.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 1484651
Format: Audiobook, Cd
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 9
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 140010436X
Dewey Decimal Number: 385.314097471
EAN: 9781400104369
ASIN: 140010436X
Publication Date: May 14, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! Unabridged. 2007 Audio CD.
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| Customer Reviews:
 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!!
 A David McCullough treatment would have been gripping. This, not. June 28, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I came to this book prepared to place it in the pantheon of marvelous accounts of epic undertakings and events of the muscled, 19th century America powerbrokers whose vision shaped the world we live in. Unfortunately, Jonnes is not the writer to capture that age.
The majesty of the tunnel undertakings should have been the centerpiece of the story. The effort in the book clearly went into retracing the intrigues surroundinging the graft-ridden political machinery the PRR had to overcome. So, for visual support, we are treated to a number of head- and group shots of the principals, in and out of business meetings, and nostalgic scenes of congested New York streets and waterways. Where are the detailed descriptions, maps and diagrams that flesh out the real story - the mastery of tunnel construction in an unstable footing?
Jonnes has a long way to go to approach the narrative skills of David McCullough in "The Great Bridge," "The Johnstown Flood," or "The Path Between the Seas."
Needs a fact checker June 15, 2007
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
I am an avid PRR aficiando but was shocked to read the first sentence of the book and to find it rife with errors. Mr. Cassatt used what the PRR called "Business Cars" for his travels over the railroad, not Pullman Palace Cars. He conducted his business and inspected his property from a seat in what the railroad termed a PARLOR not a sitting room. DETAILS!
I was so disappointed that I had to put the book down. I'll try again tonight. After all the hype about this book, I would have thought that the book would have been a historical gem telling the story of one of America's engineering marvels.
It is a story worth telling and telling well. I'll update my thoughts as I complete the story
Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic June 14, 2007
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its TunnelsA very good read about railroad history.
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