The drama of Americaâs efforts to span the continent is told through a series of biographical stories interconnected over two centuries. The stories include both familiar and less familiar individuals--George Washington surveying for the Erie Canal; Thomas Durant as a master schemer in building the transcontinental railroad; Alice Ramsey, the first woman to drive coast-to-coast; Carl G. Fisher, an eccentric entrepreneur who solicited support for the country's first coast-to-coast highway; William Boeing offering the first coast-to-coast commercial passenger flights. Surprising connections between these and other transcontinental pioneers presents a narrative that is intriguing, enlightening, and sometimes unbelievable. As America struggled to find its way west, these captivating stories provide the focus for a history of American daring and determination.
The drama of Americaâs efforts to span the continent is told through a series of biographical stories interconnected over two centuries. The stories include both familiar and less familiar individuals--George Washington surveying for the Erie Canal; Thomas Durant as a master schemer in building the transcontinental railroad; Alice Ramsey, the first woman to drive coast-to-coast; Carl G. Fisher, an eccentric entrepreneur who solicited support for the country's first coast-to-coast highway; William Boeing offering the first coast-to-coast commercial passenger flights. Surprising connections between these and other transcontinental pioneers presents a narrative that is intriguing, enlightening, and sometimes unbelievable. As America struggled to find its way west, these captivating stories provide the focus for a history of American daring and determination.
Introduction
Crossing the continent remained a historic ambition of Americans for over two centuries, from the mid-eighteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. During that time, the impact of transportation systems on the growth of American towns and cities was more than significantâit was overwhelming. America's rise as a great nation was in no small part due to pioneers who were at the heart of this evolution in travel.
By the late eighteenth century, Americans were resolute in their conviction the nation's destiny was tied closely to western expansion. The West was defined as an elusive reality whose location was defined by circumstance across generations. As described by one historian, the West ââŚcan always be found in the same place, on the smart side of the setting sun.â[i] However, the location of the West depends on where someone is standing at any moment in time, for it has changed over time during this countryâs eras of discovery.
A few theorists have referred to this era of exploration and discovery as the nation's âManifest Destiny,â a term first used in 1845 by writer John O'Sullivan to express in two words a belief in the providential mission of the republic to expand across the continent. OâSullivan stated it was âour manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.â[ii] Historian Frederick Merk went so far as to say this concept was âgenerated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven.â[iii]
âSpirit of the Frontier,â by John Gast, 1872[iv]
In 1872, artist John Gast created âSpirit of the Frontier,â an engraving represented the concept of Manifest Destiny, with its symbolic portrayal of settlers moving west. The pioneers are shown guided by Columbia, the American goddess of liberty (dressed in a Roman toga to represent classical republicanism), bringing light as she travels towards the âdarkenedâ west, aided by new technologies of the eraârailways and the telegraph. It is in this spirit the nation pushed forward toward taming the continent.
The following chapters present a series of biographies of individuals who led the way in the venture to cross the American continent using new forms of travel and transportation technologies. The stories of these intriguing individuals, some well-known and some forgotten, illustrate that every age gets the biographies it deserves, for as Ralph Waldo Emerson recognized, âThere is properly no history, only biography.â Their innovation and entrepreneurship occurred for many reasons, including ambition, greed, acts of nature, happenstance, and, of course, improved technologies. But most interesting, the individual motivations that describe their enterprises can be described in a number of waysâthe words impressive, impassioned, prodigious, formidable, all come to mind.
These biographies represent a variety of motivations. They begin with George Washington, who was directly involved in the development of a number of new routes to the western territoriesâthe National Road, the âPatowmackâ Canal, and the Erie Canalâboth because he felt it was important to the young nationâs future but also because he had surveyed and bought thousands of acres of settlement land on speculation. Others had other types of motivations for their involvement in crossing the continent. Carl G. Fisher promoted the first continental highway because of a legitimate sense of patriotism, but also to help sell his gas headlamps for automobiles; Cal Rodgers made the countryâs first coast-to-coast flight out of a sense of adventurism, but also with the slim hope of winning a monetary prize; Charles Lindbergh helped establish the first coast-to-coast airmail service, even though thirty-one out of forty of the serviceâs first pilots had died in crashes.
These stories and others describe the history of the great adventure of transcontinental travel, but also explore the motivations of the individuals who risked much to satisfy their personal sense of self-fulfillment. The following chapters lead us to explore this countryâs destiny to reach west by land, water, and air through the similarities, and sometimes the interconnectedness, of these biographies. Writer Walter Lippman amplified this idea when he recognized, âI think reality is not about facts, but about the relationship of facts to one another.â There is no grand design to the unfolding of history; it happens more by circumstance than by arrangement. The stories of these individuals and others are marvelous, intriguing, and sometimes unbelievable as they reveal the narrative of our nation's endeavors toward Crossing the Continent.
[i] George E. Condon. Stars in the Water: The Story of the Erie Canal (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1974) xi.
[ii] McCrisken, Trevor B., âExceptionalism: Manifest Destinyâ in Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy (2002), Vol. 2, p. 68.
George Washington:
Envisioning Early Routes West
Most biographies of George Washington focus on the major roles he assumed later in lifeâCommander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, one of the founding fathers of the new nation, and first President of the United States. What is less recognized is that Washington played a significant role in the nation's first steps toward crossing the continent. He was one of the first to survey the Northern Neck region of upcountry western Virginia, and gradually purchased thousands of acres of land, from Virginia to the Ohio Valley, realizing it could eventually be sold as parcels for settlers. As a soldier, he served as aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock, who established the first engineered road across the Appalachians, a route that later led to the route of the National Highway. He also served as president of the Patowmack Canal Company, leading an effort to construct the first waterway connection to the Ohio valley territories. Years later, his initial reconnaissance for the Erie Canal formed the basis of the route that opened the settlement of the Ohio Territories and the Great Lakes region. Washington will forever be recognized for his major military and political roles in American history, but he also had a genuine lifetime commitment to encouraging the nation to move west.
To gain an understanding of what motivated the many passions of Washington, psychologists have described his essential trait as being extraversion, a term describing a personality that is energetic, driven, outgoing, and brings a positive focus to goals. This may have been a result of his father dying when George was eleven years old and his being raised by a demanding mother. The family was classed as second-tier gentry, and much of Washingtonâs motivation throughout his lifetime can be attributed to his need to be accepted among the higher ranks in Virginia colonial society. One psychological study went as far as to posit that, âUnheeded by his father, unloved by his mother, ever painfully sensitive to his lack of education, socially awkward and inarticulate, frustrated in love, George Washington compensated by seeking glory in war and politics and social and economic distinction in the obsessive acquisition of land.â[i] This is evidenced in his young career in his multiple roles as a surveyor, land speculator, military leader, entrepreneur, visionary, and patriot. Each of these activities gave focus to his interest in promoting development of territories on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains and finding a route west.
Surveyor George Washington speculates on western parcels
Seventeen-year-old George Washington had developed into an able surveyor. On a given day he was packing onto his horse his thirty-three-foot chain, tripod, and circumferentor (a sighting compass). During this time of year, before the leaves came out, he and his survey crew were constantly on the move from one site to another, traveling on horseback and sleeping in the open air. They would survey a parcel of land for a buyer, with the survey map to be registered with the Proprietary Office.
George Washington as Surveyor[ii]
Washington kept a journal during each of his month-long trips, recording the crew's many activities. From this journal, it was obvious he loved the rigor of working upcountry in areas that had never been explored. In a way, he was gaining a love for the unsettled western territories he would never lose. Although Washington's perspective on these remote territories was limited, since for him the west was just over the Appalachian Mountains, his contributions to opening the west proved to be quite compelling.
Washington had developed his surveying skills almost by default. His father, Augustine Washington, had been a landowner in the Virginia Colony when he died in 1743, when George was eleven years old. George lived with his strict mother on Ferry Farm, a small landholding on the Rappahannock River. Along with a few slaves, they had few valuable possessions other than his father's surveying equipment. Following an early apprenticeship, George became an avid surveyor. He soon received his professional surveyor's license from the College of William and Mary and at the young age of seventeen was given an official role as the first county surveyor in the colonies. That same year he was appointed Surveyor General of Virginia.
Surveying was an occupation well respected in the colonies in the eighteenth century, on a par with lawyers, doctors, clergymen and military officers. An ambitious surveyor who worked diligently in the spring and fall seasons could earn a substantial annual income, exceeded generally only by nobility or the finest lawyers. He once expressed his attitude on the importance of surveys: âNothing can be more essentially necessary to any man possessed of a large, landed estate, the bound of some part or other of which is always in controversy.â Although he worked as a surveyor for only three years, they were very influential years for him. Between the ages of seventeen and twenty, Washington surveyed almost two hundred new parcels of land in the Northern Neck area of Virginia. Frontier surveyors also could profit from many opportunities to be land speculators who had the advantage to purchase choice lots in undeveloped areas.
George lived at Mount Vernon with his brother Lawrence, who was fourteen years his senior and who essentially became his substitute father. Both of them loved to hunt, and Lawrence often hosted fox hunting parties. One of the regular guests was the nobleman, Thomas, Baron Cameron, Sixth Lord Fairfax. Lord Fairfax was a good neighbor to know. Born at Leeds Castle in Kent, England, he had lived the life of nobility, spending his youth partying in London and hunting in the countryside. After his father's death, although Lord Fairfax liquidated the family's landholdings in Britain, he kept a five-million-acre proprietary grant of land in Virginia gifted to him as political payoff for being an ally of Britain's King Charles II. With this landholding, Lord Fairfax moved from England to Virginia in 1735, where he was the only British titled nobleman living in the American colonies and the richest landowner in Virginia.
Lord Fairfax often invited Lawrence and George to his Virginia estate in return for the hospitality of the Washington brothers. As George got to know him, he saw Lord Fairfax as the man he aspired to beâwealthy, socially connected, and influential. The Washington brothers soon became members of the extended Fairfax family. George later referred to these times as âthe happiest moments of my life.â
George was a strapping young manâover six feet tall, with reddish hair and gray-blue eyes, with narrow shoulders and large hands and feet. As Lord Fairfax got to know George better, he became impressed with his energy and talents. In fact, Fairfax once suggested to him that he gain better control over his temper, a product of his impatience and insecurities. This led to Fairfax making a special request of George: âI know you enjoy both being upcountry and surveying. I need to defend my claims to our land grant and establish its boundaries. The land in the Northern Neck area has been in dispute for almost a century. I am sending out a survey party and would like you to be part of it.â George did not take long to respond, âI would very much appreciate such an opportunity.â A survey party was assembled that included an experienced professional as its leader and Washington and the rest of the surveying team. It was their task to lay out lots in various sections of Lord Fairfaxâs enormously large tract.
Lord Fairfax Tract in Virginiaâs Northern Neck Region[iii]
As the work progressed, Lord Fairfax was pleased with the quality of the maps prepared by the crew. During this time, he recognized Washington as someone who was fair, honest, and dependable. It was not long before George's friendship with and sponsorship by Lord Fairfax was to be instrumental in the young man's rise to political and social prominence. It bonded a relationship that lasted until the baron's death more than thirty years later.
Washington favored exploring upcountry land while doing his surveys. He especially enjoyed time spent along the banks of the Potomac River as it meandered down from the mountains toward the community of Georgetown. During this period Washington surveyed and explored land as far west as the newly settling Northwest Territory, an area primarily consisting of what eventually became the state of Ohio. Washington became recognized as an early âwesternâ hero as he expanded his realm further, in essence transforming tribal territory into marketable real estate. Over the years, he would expand his landholdings to include more than sixty-five thousand acres at locations in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, and the Ohio Valley.[iv] With these holdings he had become a land speculator of some note, holding properties varying from lots to thousands of acres. Biographer Douglas Freeman saw Washington's ambition for wealth made him acquisitive and sometimes contentious., describing him as an âinveterate land-grabber.â[v]
Washingtonâs Land Holdings[vi]
At the time, the settlement pattern of colonial America consisted primarily of towns and cities along the Atlantic seaboard, extending little into the interior. The Appalachian Mountains were a barrier to migration and few colonists were adventurous enough to cross its many ridges to see what lay to the west. However, in 1744 at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Six Nations Treaty was signed, opening the Shenandoah Valley and part of the Ohio Valley to English settlement for the first time. This created a mania for western land speculation. What lay west was vast and fertile open land, ready for settlement, with few inhabitants to stand in the way. There were sparsely scattered settlements with some French and British traders and military troops and, of course, Native American tribes, but little else.
As Washington became intimately familiar with much of the upriver topography, he began developing an idea; it grew into a personal mission he kept alive for decades. He recognized the potential to make the Potomac River into a major transportation route across the Appalachian Mountains, and developed the audacious notion the Potomac River could, and should, be made navigable for barges. This would inevitably tie the new territories economically to the east coast, a strategic tie stronger than any ties that might be advanced by the French or Spanish. As he told a friend, âSuch a canal would bind settlers to us by a chain which never can be broken.â
As early as the 1740s, other proposals were put forward for routes to connect waterways of the east coast to the fertile grounds along the Ohio River system. But the Potomac River seemed a good choice for developing a navigable waterway, since it flowed east to Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic coast, and from these ports shipments could easily go up and down the coast and across to England. Washington stood to benefit greatly from completion of a Potomac Canal project. His properties would be enhanced, and he could receive a handsome return on his investments through tolls.
Colonel George Washington uses an Indian trail for a route across the Appalachians
But it would be years before Washington could again return to the pursuit of building a canal. As it turned out, Washington played a pivotal role in establishing the earliest transportation route across the Allegheny Mountains but it was not to be a canal. Instead, he had a central role in establishing the first overland highway from Maryland to the Ohio Territory. The curious story of how this happened is historically convoluted and begins with his becoming a member of the Virginia militia.
Washington realized being a surveyor would allow him to be no more than a gentleman of the second rank, so with his brother's encouragement he decided to pursue a role with the military. Although his dream was to become an officer with British forces, he recognized the difficulty of obtaining such a role and solicited a position to serve with the Virginia militia. Governor Dinwiddie appointed him as adjutant to the colony's militia in the colony's southern district, with a substantial annual salary of one hundred pounds.
At the time, sections of the Northwest Territory had been claimed variously by the French and British crowns, as well as the Iroquois and Delaware tribes. England and France were engaged in a cold war, with the Ohio valley claimed by both. At the conclusion of the third of four French and Indian Wars between the France and Britain in the colonies, the King George's War in 1748, France made moves to establish control of the Ohio Valley. They eventually established fifteen hundred French troops stationed below Lake Erie and erected a series of garrison outposts. At this point in time, France controlled the Ohio region from the north, while British control was from across the Allegheny Mountains. The French strategy was to control land from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River. British colonists were concerned, for they did not want their future to be restricted to the narrow section of the continent east of the Alleghenies.
In November 1753, Washington was sent west as an emissary on a mission given by Virginiaâs Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie. George was twenty-one when he and a small crew ventured to the Ohio Territory for the first time. They were assigned two interpreters, a Dutchman who knew French, and Christopher Gist, a backwoodsman who supposedly knew Indian tongues. There were four additional âservitorsâ making up the small party traveling through heavy snow into a region well known by the French, but foreign to the Virginians. Washingtonâs mission was to present a letter to the French and demand a reply, for which he was to wait no longer than one week. The letter began: âSir. The lands upon the Ohio River in the western parts of the colony of Virginia are so notoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great Britain it is a matter of equal concern and surprise to me to hear a body of French forces are erecting fortresses and making settlements upon that river within H.M.'s Dominions.â It continued by warning the French troops stationed north of the Ohio River they were encroaching on land claimed by Virginia, and he had orders to demand the French withdraw from the Northwest Territory. During the trip Washington also was to collect all the information he could on French military strengthâarmaments, defenses, communications, and plans.
As part of his responsibilities, he needed to establish a military route across the mountains. He was not entirely familiar with the region, but Christopher Gist would prove to be a valuable resource for young Washington. At various times Gist had been a fur trader, explorer of the Ohio River region, and engineer. He understood Indians and had great patience in dealing with them. Adversity never seemed to depress him, and he led Washington calmly through a number of dangerous situations. Washington used Gist as a guide for the trip across the mountains to the western territories. Gist and his friend Nemacolin, a Delaware Indian, had blazed a trail for the Ohio Trading Company from Willâs Creekâtodayâs Cumberland, Marylandâwestward to the Ohio Valley. Gist agreed to accompany Washington on the route known as Nemacolin's Path, a rough trail used by Native Americans. Washington seemed comfortable with Gist, perhaps because Gist had also been formally trained as a surveyor, likely by Gistâs father who had helped survey the city of Baltimore. Gist also was an accomplished explorer and frontiersman who understood the hazards of traveling in the new territories and had been hired by the Ohio Company to survey the Ohio River from its beginning in Shannopin's Town (now Pittsburgh) to Louisville.
During this first trip west, Washington, always the surveyor, created a crude map showing his route as he traveled Nemacolin's Path over the rugged Appalachian (historically more popularly called the Allegheny, or Aligany) Mountains.[vii] Although Pittsburgh is where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers meet, Washington on his map referred to the Allegheny River as a continuation of the Ohio River.
George Washington and Christopher Gist Crossing the Allegheny River[viii]
Gist was responsible for saving Washington's life as they came to the banks of the wintery Allegheny River. A canoe would not have survived in the ice and current, so the two of them felled standing timbers to construct a raft. After a day of chopping in the bitter cold with a single hatchet, the small and slippery raft was put into the water. With long poles, both pushed the rough platform into the river. Before they were halfway across, an ice jam collided with their efforts. Washington was furiously working his pole when it jammed and threw him into the water. Gist knew hypothermia would inevitably set in quickly. Not able to make it to either shore, they were fortunate to be close to a small island. They found a bit of ground where Washington, covered with ice, and Gist, who was frost-bitten, huddled together and kept themselves from freezing. As recorded later by Gist, âThe Major having fallen in from off the raft, and my fingers frost-bitten, and the sun down, and very cold, we contented ourselves to encamp upon that island. It was deep water between us and the shore; but the cold did us some service, for in the morning it was frozen hard enough for us to pass over on the ice.â[ix] Gist's journal entry only suggests the imminent danger inherent in the crossing and the near-death experience in which Washington's life was saved, but the experience formed a bond between the two men that would endure for years.
Washington continued his expedition with Gist as traveling partner. He had been sent to negotiate with the French military leaders, calling on them to withdraw from their control of the region. Because the French had a superior number of troops, these somewhat presumptuous negotiations with the French failed; the French simply refused. Washington had little else to do after delivering the message, so he returned to Virginia.
Meanwhile, the French and British again prepared for war. In 1755, Washington returned along Nemacolin's Trail as part of a force led by British General Edward Braddock. Washington served as Braddock's aide-de-camp, based on his practical knowledge of the Ohio Valley gained through his experiences in 1753 and 1754. As part of this campaign, Braddock's troops widened Nemacolin's Path to become a military road for his wagons and 2,200 troops. As work progressed, Washington was impressed with the British soldiers as they created a smooth, graded road for the military materiel. Braddock's Trail was like a boulevard across the mountain passes that had been only a rough wheel track for Washington on his previous trip.
Washington loved serving with Braddock, and the General became more dependent on his aide. They would argue, often regarding Braddock's criticisms of the value of using Colonials as part of the brigade, and although Braddock was reluctant to change his mind, the discussions were respectful of each other's opinions. Skirmishes continued between the combined forces of the French and Indiansâprimarily the Iroquois nationâagainst the British and American colonists. In an attack against the French, the British regulars had little ability to fight out of formation and panicked as they stayed on their horses and fought an unseen foe in the wooded areas. Braddock refused to follow Washington's suggestion they should âengage the enemy in their own way.â
Braddock's attempt to oust the French at Fort Duquesne (near present-day Pittsburgh) was a woeful failure. Braddock had the benefit of 2,100 troops under his command, while the French garrison was limited to 250 men. What he did not plan on was that most of the Indian tribes in the region sided with the French. After stubbornly refusing assistance from friendly Indian scouts, he ignored their warnings of an ambush. After his troops had pushed through the wilderness for three months, scores of Brits, Scots, colonists, frontiersmen, and farmers were slaughtered during the ensuing battle. The wounded left behind were scalped. Braddock underestimated the military abilities of the French and their Indian partners. Rallying his men numerous times to attack, Braddock was mortally wounded by a shot through the chest. In the end, more than nine hundred of the fourteen hundred troops who were engaged in battle were either killed or wounded. As Benjamin Franklin wrote about Braddock: âThis general was, I think, a brave man, and might probably have made a figure as a good officer in some European war. But he had too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of regular troops, and too mean as one of both Americans and Indians.â[x]
During the battle, Washington had two horses shot out from under him, and various accounts describe four bullets that pierced his coat. Propitiously, Washington escaped the battle unscathed and led the remaining troops in retreat. Braddock was borne off the battlefield by Washington and carried back to the trail he had opened. He was buried under the trail, where Washington had troops and wagons run over the site many times to prevent his body from being discovered and desecrated by the Indians. As the only leader remaining, he led a retreat back to their mountaintop camp. From there the army returned to Fort Cumberland on the other side of the mountains and eventually wintered in Philadelphia.
Washington returned to the east as a hero and his reputation became continental. The French and Indian War continued through 1760, when the British ultimately defeated the French and their allies and France ceded control of the entire Ohio region to Great Britain. In that same year, King George of Britain declared all of the Northwest Territory an Indian Reserveâa huge land area stretching from the Appalachians to the Mississippi and from Newfoundland to Florida.
Nemacolin's Trail, which became known at Braddock's Trail during it use by the military, remained a dangerous and inconvenient route to the west for many decades. However, it would become significant as a transportation route during the nineteenth centuryâindeed, it would become a national highwayâbut not until after the death of Washington and during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson.
[i] Gregg Henriques. âWho Was George Washington?â Psychology Today. 22 February 2015 (Accessed: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201502/who-was-george-washington, 16 March 2020).
[ii] Printmakers Valentine Green, Henry Bryan Hall, and James Barton Longacre. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation. Wikimedia File:Washington as a surveyor (NYPL b12610613-424861).tiff.
[iii] Permission from Friends of the Historic Fairfax Courthouse.
[iv] âDid You Know that George Washington was a Land Surveyor.â Point to Point Land Surveyors (14 January 2010). (Accessed: http://www.pointtopointsurvey.com/2010/01/did-you-know-that-george-washington-was-a-land-surveyor/, 22 January 2017).
[v] Phil Mason. How George Washington Fleeced the Nation (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2010). p. 22.
[vi] Based on information from Wilbur E. Garrett. âGeorge Washingtonâs Patowmack Canal.â National Geographic, Volume 171, No. 6 (June 1987) 723-4.
[vii] Allegheny or Appalachian Mountains? The Allegheny Mountain Rangeâalso spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Allegheniesâis part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada. The Alleghenies have a northeastâsouthwest orientation and run for about 400 miles from north-central Pennsylvania, through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia, to southwestern Virginia.
[viii] Daniel Huntington, âGeorge Washington and Christopher Gist crossing the Allegheny River,â 1844. Wikimedia File: Washington Crossing the Alleghany, by D. Huntington.png.
[ix] âChristopher Gist's Journals: with historical, geographical and ethnological notes and biographies of his contemporaries.â University of Toronto (Accessed: https://archive.org/stream/christophergists00gistuoft/christophergists00gistuoft_djvu.txt, 11 January 2017).
[x] âGeneral Edward Braddock and the French and Indian War.â Study.com (Accessed: http://study.com/academy/lesson/gen-edward-braddock-the-french-and-indian-war.html, 24 January 2017).
[iii] Frederick Merk. Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1963) p. 3.
[iv] Public domain. Wikimedia File:American progress.jpg.
I found Norm Tyler's Crossing the Continent incredibly interesting. What we have here is a book which is meticulously researched and packed full of information and pictures which have been sieved and distilled by Tyler to create a documentation of the stories of pioneers, entrepreneurs, visionaries and mercenary businessmen, who all had a hand in making travel across America possible.
Tyler starts with the establishment of the first routes and gradually progresses from tracks, byways and passes to rail, road and beyond, keenly illustrating what a vast undertaking creating the means to cross America was. I think it is easy in our day and age to overlook how much was involved in making these advances happen; on a financial level, yes, but also on a physical level as the modern world relies so heavily on machinery to get things done quickly and efficiently but if that plant hasn't been invented yet, then it's all down to good old-fashioned manpower.
It was enlightening. I didn't know most of the names mentioned by Tyler but that didn't matter because he was able to bring them alive for me, with the biographical detail he has gleaned and contemporary accounts from newspapers alongside first person dealings. And you have a proper diverse bunch of men here and, I was pleased to note, a few women.
I especially liked the chapter devoted to Fisher who sounds like more of a showman than an entrepreneur at times and was perhaps the first businessman to truly understand how, if you want to get the consumer on board, a good place to start is to excite them. It transpires that it was, in Fisher's case, also the way that he got himself a wife!
I did sometimes feel like some of the chapters were heavy on the detail and that there was a tendency to repeat when it was not always necessary for understanding but this is a minor criticism for a book which is competently and comprehensively written.
If you've ever been curious about the figures and the processes involved in how the European settlers made their way west and how America was connected from coast to coast, then I can recommend this book wholeheartedly.