THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD

The story of one of our country’s greatest infrastructure projects, from “mad dream” to golden spike.

Hirsch doesn’t gloss over the enterprise’s rampant financial chicanery, undisguised exploitation of Irish and Chinese immigrants, and environmental damage—even adding an afterword that highlights them—but by and large he plays this account of the rail line’s Civil War–era conception and construction as a breathless, epic race between two teams of racially and culturally diverse hired workers, punctuated by fiendish conniving, remarkable feats of engineering, and broad comedy. Hirsch parades a cast of colorfully wrought historical figures ranging from the Union Pacific Railroad’s larger than life Chief Engineer Peter Dey (“Shh! He’s envisioning!” comments an awed bystander) to the Central Pacific’s hard-driving Construction Superintendent J.H. Strobridge, whose “TOOT!”-threaded fulminations evidently signal serious intestinal issues. Through tumultuous cartoon panels, the author/illustrator follows the progress of Irish war veteran Tom coming east and “Gold Mountain” seeker Lim, from China, to stand in for the workers as they face hardships both natural and otherwise on the way to a climactic handshake in the final scene. Exhilarated readers will come away with clear enough pictures of the project’s costs and benefits to decide whether the one was worth the other.

Suspenseful, grand of scope, and related with cinematic brio.