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The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers

Page 45

by Simon Winchester


  Susquehanna River, 169

  unifying role in America, 229–30

  Wisconsin River, 175

  Youghiogheny River, 182–83

  See also geological survey and mapping; water

  roads/roadways/road building

  early colonial postal roads, 241–42

  government role and funding, 243, 283, 296–97, 300

  National Road, building of, 243–48

  unifying role in America, 413

  western migration trails, 242

  See also automobiles; transcontinental highways

  Roberts, Larry (Internet pioneer), 421, 423

  Rodgers, Calbraith Perry (aviation pioneer), 315–16, 318–27

  Rolfe, John (early colonial figure), 167

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (president), 301, 304–5, 376–81

  Roosevelt, Theodore (president), 125–26

  Rothschild, Walter (Lord), 146

  Ruggles of Red Gap (movie), 276

  Rural Electrification Administration (REA), 376–85

  Russia. See Soviet Union

  Saarinan, Eero (architect), 226

  Sacagawea (Shoshone woman), 49–52

  Saint Lawrence River, 169

  Sam 951 (Charolais bull), 25

  Sandisfield, Massachusetts, 429–32

  Sandisfield Times (newspaper), 429–32

  Santa Fe Trail, 24, 96, 103

  Sarnoff, David (radio pioneer), 398, 411

  Savery, Thomas (inventor), 253

  Scammon, Eliakim (military officer/ explorer), 105

  Schoolcraft, Henry (geologist), 93, 227

  Seattle, Washington, 174–75

  Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids (SCATANA), 314–15

  Senf (Swedish engineer), 192

  September 11 terrorist attacks, 312–16

  “settler movement”

  about role of geology, 75–77

  attraction to “Promised Land,” 91–96

  Continentalism and Manifest Destiny, 30–32, 100, 109

  early beginnings of, 6–9

  encroachment on Indian lands, 331–33

  following trails west, 96–104

  survey and land sales, 9–16

  See also immigration

  Seven Years’ War (aka French and Indian War), 178–79

  Sherman, William Tecumseh (General), 115

  Sho-kup (Shoshone chief), 331–32

  Sibley, Hiram (telegraph investor), 347–48, 350–51

  Siemering, William (founder of public radio), 399, 401–2, 404–5

  Sitting Bull (Sioux chief), 46–47

  Slack, John (con man), 143–50

  slaves/slavery

  as early American institution, 7, 92

  expansion to new western states, 258, 263

  Jefferson as slave-owner, 4, 6

  Lewis and Clark expedition, 21

  Native American ownership, 50

  secession and beginning of Civil War, 348

  See also race/race relations

  Sliney, Ben (air traffic controller), 313–16

  Smeaton, John (canal engineer), 189

  Smith, Jedediah (trapper/explorer), 94, 96, 99

  Smith, John (explorer), 166–67

  Smith, William (mapmaker), 82

  Smithsonian Institution, 116, 138, 352

  “Song of the Open Road” (Whitman), 238

  Song of the Talking Wire (Farny), 333

  Soviet Union

  Cold War threat/weaponry, 27, 31, 420

  early ideals of Marxism in, 84

  launch of space exploration, 419

  Spain, exploration and colonization, 12–13, 62, 106, 242

  Spalding, Eliza (missionary), 93

  Spanish conquistadores, 35n, 42n, 173–74

  Spotted Elk (Sioux chief), 48

  Springfield, Massachusetts, 295

  St. Louis, Missouri, 22–23, 51n, 54, 70, 226, 228n, 251

  Stanford, Leland, 273–75

  Stanley, William (engineer), 372

  Stansbury, Howard (explorer), 94, 108

  Stanton, Edwin (secretary of war), 141

  steam/steam engines

  early inventions and development, 249

  launch of steamboat era, 250–52

  properties and use of, 248

  unifying role in America, 237

  See also water

  Steinbeck, John (author), 233, 301

  Stevens, John (father of American rail), 252–55

  Stevens Institute of Technology, 255

  Stewart, James (actor), 289

  Stone, William Leete, Sr. (journalist), 209

  Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), 27

  Strong, Daniel (merchant), 263–65

  Stuart, Robert (explorer), 94n

  Sumner, Jack (Powell expedition survivor), 128

  A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America (Colles, 1789), 242–43

  survey/surveying expeditions. See geological survey and mapping

  Susquehanna River, 169

  Syracuse, New York, 205

  telegraph

  beginnings of an industry, 331–35

  development by Samuel Morse, 337–41

  electricity and its use for, 335–37

  first public message, 328, 345–47

  government role and funding, 343–44

  overcoming technical problems, 341–45

  rival systems to Morse, 347–48

  undertaking cross-country construction, 348–49

  unifying role in America, 349–51, 413

  telephone

  about invention and patenting, 351–53

  beginnings of an industry, 326–27

  comparison to telegraph, 351

  development, 355–57

  first successful demonstration, 353–54

  first transcontinental call, 354–55

  television

  beginnings of an industry, 412–13

  derided as “vast wasteland,” 416–17

  first public demonstration, 409–10

  impact of cable networks, 415–17

  predictions for its future, 410–12

  unifying role in America, 407–8, 413–14

  See also electricity/electric lights

  Telford, Thomas (canal engineer), 189

  Tesla, Nikola (inventor), 369–72, 387

  Texas, annexation by U.S. (1845), 106

  Thompson, Benjamin (aka Count Rumford, inventor), 190

  Thompson, David (explorer), 35n

  Thoreau, Henry David (poet), 92

  Tiffany, Charles (jeweler), 145, 150

  Tocqueville, Alexis de (political thinker), 198

  Todd, James, 155–60

  The Tonight Show (television show), 407–9

  Topeka, Kansas, 308–9

  Trail of Tears, xxiii

  Transcontinental Convoy of 1919, 280–94

  transcontinental highways

  about Thomas MacDonald and, 294–96

  government role and funding, 296–300

  numbering system and routes, 300–304

  planning/building Alaska Highway, 299, 310–12

  planning/building Interstate Highway System, 304–10

  See also roads/roadways/road building

  transcontinental railroad

  authorization by Congress, 266–67

  beginning surveys for, 258

  Ceremony of Golden Spike, 273

  construction, 267–72

  crossing Missouri River, 276

  meeting at Promontory Summit, xiii, 103, 117, 272–76

  role of “Crazy Judah,” 258–59, 261–66, 275, 433

  See also railroads; Union Pacific Railroad

  transcontinental telegraph, 348–51

  transcontinental telephone, 354–57

  transcontinental television, 409–10

  transportation. See automobiles; railroads; rivers/river exploration; steam/steam engines

  Treaty of Paris (1763), 178


  Troost, Gerard (geologist), 90

  Turner, Frederick Jackson, 29–31

  Tuskegee experiment, xxiii

  Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, 288

  Twain, Mark (author), 225, 236

  Umatilla Army Depot (Oregon), 68

  unifying forces in America

  automobiles, 237

  Canal Era in America, 413

  earth, xxi

  electricity/electric lights, 385

  ethnicity, xvi–xviii

  fire, xxii

  Internet, 425–28

  Lewis and Clark expedition, xix

  metal, xxii

  Mississippi River, 227–29

  race/race relations, xvii, 403

  radio, 395–96, 402–3, 406, 413, 416

  railroads, 237, 257–58, 413

  rivers/river exploration, 229–30

  roads/roadways/road building, 413

  steam/steam engines, 237

  telegraph, 349–51, 413

  television, 407–8, 413–14

  water, xxi–xxii

  wood, xxi

  Union Pacific Railroad, 24, 53–54, 117, 139, 238, 266, 267, 270–78, 309–10. See also transcontinental railroad

  United States of America

  about uniqueness and nature of, xv–xxv

  Continentalism and Manifest Destiny, 30–32, 100, 109

  count of administrative units, xviii

  evolution of story continues, 434

  finding Paradise, 154, 222–25, 276–77

  frontier thesis, 24–32

  Jeffersonian notions of land ownership, 8–16

  9/11 terrorist attacks, 312–16

  See also geological survey and mapping; “settler movement”

  universal human freedom, xvi

  U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command, 27–28

  U.S. Army

  Corps of Engineers, 233–36, 290

  Transcontinental Convoy of 1919, 280–94

  U.S. Congress, 401

  authorization of Lewis and Clark expedition, 20–22

  compensation for Colorado River exploration, 111

  creation of Interstate Highway System, 305–8

  creation of national public radio, 401

  creation of Yellowstone Park, 137–39

  mapping of public lands, 15–16, 90

  passage of Exclusion Act of 1882, 269n

  passage of Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, 305

  passage of Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860, 348

  passage of Patent Act of 1790, 253

  passage of Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, 401

  passage of Radio Act of 1912, 394–95

  support of Depression-era “New Deal,” 379

  support of railroad development, 258, 263, 266, 275

  support of road building, 243, 247, 300

  support of telegraph system, 343–44

  U.S. Department of Defense, 420–21

  U.S. Geological Survey

  formation of, 151

  Four Great Surveys of the West, 112–13

  King as director, 139, 142

  Powell as director, 114

  U.S. Highway 40 (transformed to Interstate 70), 308–9

  U.S. Highway 66 (Route 66, the “mother road”), 301

  U.S. National Park Service, 138, 242

  U.S. National Road (Cumberland Trail), 243–48

  U.S. Supreme Court, 341n

  U.S. Weather Bureau, 387–92

  Vail, Alfred (inventor), 343–44

  Van Buren, Martin, 245

  Vancouver, Canada, 174–75

  Vancouver, George (British Navy captain), 174–75

  Vandalia, Illinois, 244

  Vanderbilt, Cornelius (family of), 362, 366

  Vietnam War, 100, 402, 403, 415

  Villard, Henry (journalist), 362

  Voyages from Montreal to the Frozen and Pacific Ocean (Mackenzie), 17–18

  Walker, Joel P. and Mrs. (western emigrants), 95–96

  Walson, John (cable TV inventor), 415

  War of the Worlds (Wells), 398

  Warren, Gouverneur Kimble (military officer/explorer), 108–10

  war/warfare

  foreign attack/invasion of America, 283–84

  French and Indian War, 178–79

  Japanese invasion of Aleutian Islands, 284n

  World War I, 281, 283

  Washington, DC

  Civil War threat, 266

  “fall line” of Potomac River, 168, 170

  Washington, George

  canal building projects, 180, 185–87

  land ownership in Ohio River Valley, 179–80, 183–84

  river exploration across Eastern Divide, 181–84

  role in French and Indian War, 179

  water

  as one of five classical elements, v, xx

  unifying role in America, xxi–xxii

  See also Canal Era in America; rivers/river exploration; steam/steam engines

  Waterston, R. C. (poet), 258

  Watson, Elkanah (canal promoter), 198–99

  Watson, Thomas (inventor), 352–54

  Watt, James (inventor), 249

  Webner, Frank (Pony Express rider), 335

  Welles, Orson (filmmaker), 377, 398

  Wells, H. G. (author), 398

  West, Jessamyn, xiii

  western settlement. See “settler movement”

  Western Union (telegraph company), 348–51, 355

  Westinghouse, George, 368–69, 374–75, 396, 410–11

  Weston, William (canal engineer), 189, 193

  Wheeler, George (military officer/surveyor), 112–13, 151

  Whiteman Air Force Base (USAF), 26–29

  Whitman, Narcissa (missionary), 93

  Whitman, Walt (poet), 238

  Whitney, Josiah (explorer), 95

  Willard, Simon (explorer), 170

  Williams, William “Bill” (explorer and suspected cannibal), 106

  Winesburg, Ohio, 276

  Winesburg, Ohio (Anderson), 429

  Winslow, Edward (explorer), 170

  Winthrop, John (mathematician/astronomer), 30, 190

  Wisconsin River, 175

  women

  access to education, 255

  missionary emigrants to the West, 93

  Sacagawea, life and legend, 49–52

  See also gender

  wood

  as one of five classical elements, v, xx

  importance in early America, 33

  unifying role in America, xxi

  A Working Hypothesis for the Study of Migrations (Johansen), 72

  World War I, 281, 283

  World War II, 304

  World Wide Web, 423–25

  Wright, Orville (inventor), 316

  Wyoming

  birth of incandescent lightbulb, 358–59

  Cold War missile defenses, 27

  pathway for western settlement, 96–100, 262

  surveying expeditions, 132–33

  the “Yellow Book” (General Location of National System of Interstate Highways Including All Additional Routes at Urban Areas), 305–9

  Yellowstone National Park

  about location and wonders of, 130–32

  exploration and survey, 132–37

  preservation as national park, 137–39

  York (slave of William Clark), 21

  Youghiogheny River, 182–83

  Young Men and Fire (Maclean), 57

  Zapruder, Matthew (poet), 238

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  SIMON WINCHESTER is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Map that Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa. Those books were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. His most recent book is Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories. In 2006 Mr. Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen
. He resides in western Massachusetts.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  ALSO BY SIMON WINCHESTER

  Atlantic

  Skulls

  West Coast: Bering to Baja

  The Man Who Loved China

  A Crack in the Edge of the World

  The Meaning of Everything

  Krakatoa

  The Map That Changed the World

  The Fracture Zone

  The Professor and the Madman

  In Holy Terror

  American Heartbeat

  Their Noble Lordships

  Stones of Empire

  Outposts

  Prison Diary, Argentina

  Hong Kong: Here Be Dragons

  Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles

  Pacific Rising

  Small World

  Pacific Nightmare

  The River at the Center of the World

  CREDITS

  Cover design by Richard Ljoenes.

  Cover images: Map courtesy of the Library of Congress. Top: The Arrival of Captain Lewis at the Great Falls of Missouri, courtesy of the artist, Charles Fritz. Bottom: Trestle at Promontory, by Andrew J. Russell, from photographs taken during construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

  Maps following the cover image, “Establishing the Union, by Means of WOOD, EARTH, and WATER” and “Consolidating the Union, by Means of FIRE and METAL,” © 2013 Springer Cartographics, LLC.

  Title page image: “The ‘The Good Roads Train,’” courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

  COPYRIGHT

  THE MEN WHO UNITED THE STATES. Copyright © 2013 by Simon Winchester. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

  ISBN: 978-0-06-207960-2

  EPUB Edition © OCTOBER 2013 ISBN 9780062079626

  13 14 15 16 17 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

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  http://www.harpercollins.com.au

 

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