The Story of the Western Railroads: From 1852 Through the Reign of the Giants

On December 23, 1852, the first train on the first railroad west of the Mississippi River steamed proudly from St. Louis to Cheltenham--theimmense distance of five miles. In that moment of exaltation, writes Robert Edgar Riegel, 'flags waved, bands played, and orators prophesied the flowering of the West under the beneficent influence of the steam locomotive.\