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Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels
by Jill Jonnes
from Viking Adult
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Customer Reviews:
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Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 
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Read McCullough's the Great Bridge First 
This makes an enjoyable companion/semi-sequel.
Having grown up in the NY metro area, I greatly found this book fascinating. I don't know if others would enjoy this as much. But I always appreciate stories that highlight the struggles to create the things we take for granted.
Everyone knows there was a time when there were no bridges and tunnels crossing the Hudson, and now there are. But who really thinks about the sacrifices and efforts that created those crossings? This book brings it home in a... more info
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An Excellent History of Penn Station 
I want to point out a couple things about this book, first, most of the information on the tunnel construction focuses on the tunnels under the Hudson and little to the construction of Penn Station proper. I was a little disappointed by that. Jones also spends few pages on the tunnels under Manhattan and the four tunnels under the East River. However, it is well written and gives a great peek inside the PRR itself and the politics of the time, as well as the men behind Penn Station's construction. Despite... more info
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Highly Recommended Reading About an Interesting Episode in New York City History
There was a point while I was reading Jill Jonnes', "Conquering Gotham", that I wished I could reach back through time, grab old Penn Station and plunk it back down onto its comfortable spot at 7th Avenue and West 32nd Street. Not the tawdry Penn Station I remember walking through as a child of eight or nine with my mother on the way to visiting my father at his showroom around the corner on West 31st Street, the one with the dusty, decrepit old signs, the misplaced ticket counters blocking one's way , and... more info
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A pearl of great price
Jill Jonnes has written a very engaging book about the construction of the late great Penn Station and its tunnels. She captures the language and textures of the late 19th and early 20th century when this monumental undertaking took place. Not surprisingly, she focuses on the railroad king, Alexander Cassatt, who had the audacity to challenge Cornelius Vanderbilt's monopoly on the railroad lines entering Gotham. She charts the various attempts to bridge over and tunnel under the Hudson but best laid... more info
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