“If one argues that history is sort of a prism—that you look at the past in order to understand the present and the future—go no further than the transcontinental railroad,” says ...

When the signal from the spike came through, the cannons fired. The world was put on notice: the transcontinental railroad was completed and America was moving to the forefront of the world's stage.

Harper's Weekly reported on the progress of the transcontinental railroad throughout its construction. These excerpts, organized chronologically, report on conflicts with Native Americans ...