A Dream

To The End

RIDGEFIELD — Ridgefield Library’s Non-Fiction Book Group will be discussing Empire Express: The Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad by David Howard Bain on Tuesday, November 6, at 7 pm. The group is free, open to all ages, and always welcomes new members. The library, at 472 Main Street, can be reached by calling 203-438-2282.

Beginning in 1842 with a visionary’s dream to span the continent with a single railroad line, Empire Express captures three dramatic decades in which the United States effectively doubled in size, fought in three wars, and began to discover a new national identity. While the dream of a cross-country railroad culminated in the driving of the Golden Spike in the Utah desert in 1869, the narrative follows the saga to the very end, with the fall of a popular politician and the exposure of a powerful, hidden railroad lobby.