No Woman Had Laid A Rail

When the last spike was hammered into the steel track of the Transcontinental Railroad back in May, of 1869, Western Union lines sounded the glorious news of the railroad's completion from New York to San Francisco. For more than 5 years an estimated 4,000 men, mostly Irish, working west from Omaha, & Chinese working east from Sacramento, moved like a vast assembly line toward the end of the track. Although NO woman had laid a rail & NO women had made a survey, the "female connection" with railroading dates as far back as 1838, when women were hired as registered nurses/stewardesses in passenger cars. It's all here in the book, "Iron Women: The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad," beautifully written, researched & put together by Chris Enss. Chris is  New York Times best-selling author who's been writing about women of the Old West for more than 20 years. Besides nursing roles, women played a larger part in the actual creation of the rail lines, & Chris gives us the raw "story-behind-the-story." In fact, Miss E. F. Sawyer became the 1st female telegraphy operator when she was hired on by the Burlington Railroad. "Iron Women" is NOW available from TwoDot, An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. Visit: GlobePequot.com. ALL ABOARD for "Iron Women," the untold story of the women who connected our country.