The Pacific Northwest has a rich and vibrant history that owes a lot to the expansion of the transcontinental railroads. The Union Pacific first created a railroad link to the Pacific Coast, but the story of how not one, but three, railroads all converged into the Seattle-Tacoma area, shaped many aspects of modern life.
Three major railroads, the Northern Pacific Railway, the Great Northern Railway, and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, each laid thousands of miles of track from the upper midwest to the Pacific Northwest, and competed for a slice of lucrative new farming and logging markets, and trade from the Orient.
Their lasting legacy became what is now the BNSF Railway Company, the largest freight railroad in North America. The original railroads supported immigration across the northern states in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and created many of the large farming and logging communities such as Wenatchee apples, Yakima hops, and Weyerhaeuser logging.
This upcoming book is due to be published by Roker Press in 2021.