Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and Its Tunnels

by Jill Jonnes

Overview

“Superb. [A] first-rate narrative” (The Wall Street Journal) about the controversial construction of New York’s beloved original Penn Station and its tunnels, from the author of Eiffel's Tower and Urban Forests

As bestselling books like Ron Chernow's Titan and David McCullough's The Great Bridge affirm, readers are fascinated with the grand personalities and schemes that populated New York at the close of the nineteenth century. Conquering Gotham re- creates the riveting struggle waged by the great Pennsylvania Railroad to build Penn Station and the monumental system of tunnels that would connect water-bound Manhattan to the rest of the continent by rail. Historian Jill Jonnes tells a ravishing tale of snarling plutocrats, engineering feats, and backroom politicking packed with the most colorful figures of Gilded Age New York.

Conquering Gotham will be featured in an upcoming episdoe of PBS's American Experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101218891
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/19/2007
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	1,012,207
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jill Jonnes is the author of Conquering Gotham, Urban Forests, Conquering Gotham, Empires of Light, and South Bronx Rising. She was named a National Endowment for the Humanities scholar and has received several grants from the Ford Foundation. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations     ix
How Shall we Reach Gotham?
"We Must Find a Way to Cross"     5
Haskins's Tunnel and Lindenthal's Bridge     15
"The Ablest Man This Railway Ever Produced"     31
"The North River Bridge Matter"     38
"A Severe Disappointment"     50
"It Might Offer the Solution"     55
"Get a Little of the Tenderloin"     63
"Crooked and Greedy"     73
"Someone in the Penn Is Leaking"     82
"The Town Is On Fire"     87
"We Shall Make Our Fight Aboveboard"     99
"Ugly Rumors of Boodle"     106
The Crossing
"We Are Not Making a Mistake"     127
"A Work Unsought"     139
"Drilling of First Hole"     151
"The Shield Is Ready to Be Shoved"     165
"Slow Progress Has Been Made"     181
"Disturbed about North River Tunnels"     191
"Would Mr. Cassatt Be Resigning?"     202
"Death Stalks Alongside Them"     210
"The Shields Have Met Exactly"     219
"The Only Railroad Statesman"     233
"New York City Shaken"     248
"The Way Is Stony and Wet"     260
"Officially Declare the StationOpen"     277
Coda     296
Acknowledgments     317
Notes     319
Bibliographic Notes     353
Index     355

What People are Saying About This

R.A. Scotti

Conquering Gotham evokes a forgotten time when the only Hudson crossing was by ferry. Lives, reputations and fortunes were lost in the seemingly impossible enterprise of tunneling beneath the river and erecting a monumental railroad terminus in Manhattan. (R.A. Scotti, author of Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal, Building St. Peter's)

Lorraine B. Diehl

An immensely readable, meticulously researched account of the PRR's turn-of-the-century efforts to deliver its passengers into Manhattan. In telling the dramatic story of the construction of the PRR's Hudson and East River tunnels, Jonnes brings readers face-to-face with the project's constant dangers and extraordinary complexities. We also get to witness the generous heart and keen mind of Alexander Cassatt, the railroad's president, whose dream to conquer Gotham eventually cost him his life. (Lorraine B. Diehl, author of The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station)

From the Publisher

"A human account of how a few visionaries from the Pennsylvania Railroad connected the rest of the country to the nation's greatest port, and how their Philadelphia-centric perspective doomed the world's largest train station."
-Sam Roberts, The New York Times

"Lush and lovely prose."
-The Baltimore Sun

"In the tradition of David McCullough's narrative of the Brooklyn Bridge . . . intelligent history about building an indispensable part of our infrastructure."
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Editorial Reviews

A human account of how a few visionaries from the Pennsylvania Railroad connected the rest of the country to the nation's greatest port, and how their Philadelphia-centric perspective doomed the world's largest train station.
— The New York Times

Sam Roberts

Lush and lovely prose.

The Baltimore Sun

Modern Manhattan is a miracle in many ways, but all of its imports, commuters included, must traverse at least one river to get there. In 1900, the New York Central, owned by the Vanderbilts, already gave Manhattan a northern connection over the narrow Harlem River. A southern connection over the mile-wide Hudson would be a whole different story. Alexander Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was the visionary on the project. But how to do it? A bridge plan fell through due to expense; a tunnel would lack the oxygen needed for steam engines. The breakthrough lay in the cutting-edge electrified locomotives developed in Paris. Historian Jonnes (Empires of Light), demonstrating impressive immersion in the Gilded Age, ably spins the tale, which bears some similarities to The Devil in the White City. This is a vivid story of hardball Tammany Hall maneuvering and mind-boggling engineering. Once construction began, the two-track narrative settles on the daunting construction of the tunnels and Charles McKim's much-admired design of the terminus at Pennsylvania Station, prized by New Yorkers only after its ill-considered demise in 1963. Jonnes can claim an important addition to the popular literature of how New York became the archetype of a great American metropolis. (Apr. 23) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In 1901, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) embarked on an epic nine-year project to bring its tracks into New York City. It would involve two tunnels under the Hudson River, four under the East River, and the building of the majestic Penn Station in midtown Manhattan. In her meticulous history, Jonnes (Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race To Electrify the World) brings to life the project's leaders, its workers, and early 1900s New York City. She carefully explains how engineering decisions were made to overcome the extremely difficult tunneling conditions. She creates suspense over the PRR's investigation of why the Hudson River tunnels kept shifting in the riverbed's silt. She gives full attention to the McKim, Mead & White architectural designs for Penn Station and details the sensational Stanford White murder and trial. Throughout, she seamlessly weaves in the machinations of the Tammany Hall political machine and the imperious practices of Gilded Age business tycoons. In a sad epilog, she chronicles the decline of the PRR and Penn Station's demolition in 1963. Several dozen superbly chosen period photos and diagrams round out the book. Jonnes has produced a well-researched and fast-paced history that is most highly recommended to all libraries.
—Lawrence R. Maxted

Library Journal

Praise for Conquering Gotham
 
“In the tradition of David McCullough’s narratives of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal . . . Intelligent history about building an indispensable part of our infrastructure.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
“Superb . . . [A] first-rate narrative.”
—The Wall Street Journal
 
“A readable and human account of how a few visionaries from the Pennsylvania Railroad connected the rest of the country to the nation’s greatest port, and how their Philadelphia-centric perspective doomed the world’s greatest train station.”
—The New York Times
 
“Impeccably researched and ravishingly detailed . . . delightful popular history.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Lush and lovely prose.”
—The Baltimore Sun
 
“Conquering Gotham is a well-written and well-researched account of an astoundingly ambitious undertaking. Ms. Jonnes skillfully weaves together the multifarious aspects of the project, from the technical complexities and political wrangling to the personalities of Cassatt and McKim.”
—New York Observer
 
“What’s clear from her riveting story is that it was every bit as hard to build great projects then as now—perhaps even harder.”
—New York Post
 
“New York City’s Pennsylvania Station’s sweeping story, involving engineering challenges, an inflexibly honest corporation leader, flexibly corrupt politicians, and street-level sociology, comes together marvelously in Jonnes’ admiring history of the undertaking.”
—Booklist

From the Publisher