The source of my jest of course was Stephen Ambrose's new history of the Pacific Railroad. Well written, and does a good job of putting the railroad within the political context of its time. Having never really paid much attention to the details, my impression has always been that the railroad was a post-civil war happening. Obviously that is not the case, and Ambrose does a good job of showing how the war itself was instrumtental in getting the legislation passed (since Jeff Davis had moved to Richmond, and he and the southern legislatores could no longer hold out for a southern route), and how much construction actually happend while the war was being fought, especially at the CP end. A good read.