I finally finished reading "Empire Express" last week. It was a good look at the building of the transcontinental railroad here in the US - the author did fairly exhaustive research, as he had a lot of personal details for the principle players at the Central Pacific RR and the Union Pacific RR.

The last segment went over the Congressional hearings on the scandals surrounding the build out - the bribery, the extra, useless track that was laid - forgetting the specific subject for a moment, anyone who has ever watched a Congressional hearing (pick your favorite scandal) would feel right at home - the 19th century ones seem to have been the same as the modern ones :)

It was a fun read - but an involved one, at over 700 pages. I'm now on to a another massive tome: "The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln" by Sean Wilentz. That should keep me busy for awhile.

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