8.14.2012

Jill Jonnes - Conquoring Gotham

Having enjoyed Jill Jonnes book on the Eiffel Tower I thought I would give this book a chance.  Nice little history on mass transit in NY City as well as an engineering record of digging under the Hudson to get there.  Amazed that over time NYers gave up on the great train station (seen to the left) and leveled it to build Madison Square Garden...go figure.  The grandeur that Pennsylvania Railroad saw in the people movers of the time is fantastic. 
 
What was more amazing was the feat of builidng the rail lines under the river to get to the Station.  We do amazing things now but it always seems that which was done in the past in light of the technology of today makes what they did seem more incredible.  This was a good read, she is a good writer of history and technology.

No comments: