Iron Horse and Gilded Age

[O]ne of the most distinguished historians of our time, Richard White, has written a book [Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America] about an epic story of the First Gilded Age: the building of the transcontinental railroads between the 1860s and the 1890s. From the moment the first of these railroads was finished at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869, these immense undertakings became an American obsession, eliciting both marvel and anger.