In 1848, a group of ambitious American entrepreneurs
decided to embark upon a remarkable engineering feat--they would build a
railroad across the Isthmus of Panama to connect the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans. The creation of the Panama Railroad ranks as one the
boldest capitalist ventures in the nineteenth century, and would require
battling climate, disease, and geography before it was completed. On a
human level it would transform the destiny of thousands of lives in
America and Panama as well as in Ireland.
The Panama Railroad provides the first comprehensive account
of the railroad's construction, going well beyond the known stories of
the titans of industry involved with its construction, such as William
Aspinwall, George Law, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. It seeks to correct
false claims and address numerous gaps in past histories, and in
particular showcases the stories of the ordinary Irish workers willing
to travel halfway around the globe to pursue an uncertain future and a
perilous undertaking in the hopes of escaping the devastating Great
Famine of 1845-49.