Landmarks on the Iron Road
Subtitle: Two Centuries of North American Railroad Engineering (Railroads Past and Present)
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: September 1999
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 194
ISBN-13: 9780253335593
Subjects: Railway technology & engineering; Social history; 20th century; c 1800 to c 1900; Transportation; Travel; USA; Engineering - Civil; Railroads - History; Civil Engineering; Railroads - General; History; Railroad Engineering; Railroads; United States
First sentence: Central to the achievements of America's nineteenth-century era of railroad expansion were the great bridges of stone, wood, iron, and steel that carried the rails across the wide rivers and deep valleys of the North American continent.
Description: "It is a remarkable story: the building of a transportation system that civilized and settled America, and then supported an industrial revolution and created a world power."--BOOK JACKET.

"This is also the story of the development of the new profession of civil engineering in the nineteenth century. Our engineers were schooled at West Point, the technical schools in Europe, or technical institutes in America, while some were self-taught: these early practitioners soon acquired the skills needed for the construction of railroads that could be rapidly and economically built.

The needs of the railroads changed bridge design from a trial-and-error art to a science, fathered modern structural-engineering practices, and advanced the development of structural materials."--BOOK JACKET. "This book, for the first time, calls adequate attention to the physical plant over which railroads operate - the roadbeds, tracks, bridges, and tunnels, subjects that are often taken for granted. It is a book no rail fan or student of engineering can be without."--BOOK JACKET.