In the 1800s, traveling across America was slow, dangerous, and exhausting. Wagons creaked over rocky trails, stagecoaches jolted through endless miles of dust, and months passed before people reached their destinations. Everything changed when an incredible idea took shape-building a railroad that would stretch from one side of the country to the other.

This book takes young readers on an exciting journey through the challenges, triumphs, and groundbreaking innovations that made the first transcontinental railroad possible. They'll meet the visionaries who dreamed of uniting the nation, the thousands of workers who risked their lives blasting through mountains and laying tracks across the plains, and the communities forever changed by the iron rails.

From thrilling races to lay the most track in a day to the legendary moment when the final golden spike was driven into place, this story brings to life one of the greatest engineering feats in history. But the railroad wasn't just about speed and progress-it also reshaped the land, impacted Native American tribes, and transformed the way people lived and traveled.