Sunday, June 10, 2007

The Railroad and the City by Carl W. Condit

Apparently there isn't a single picture of this book on the internet. It makes sense. It is relatively dry, technical reading about Cincinnati railroads. The only reason that I read this book was so that I could write a final paper for my History of Cincinnati class.

Condit charts the rise of railroads in southwest Ohio, ending with the construction of Union Terminal -- the largest semicircular, half-dome structure in the world. I found it interesting that Union Terminal was the first time that Cincinnati constructed a train station as part of an overall city plan, namely the 1925 Master Plan. Prior to this, stations had simply been built by the railroad companies wherever it made economic sense to do so.

Trained as an engineer and a historian, Condit is able to provide the reader with some nice descriptions of the numerous railroad stations that were scattered across the city of Cincinnati before to the unification of the city's rail lines. I enjoyed the old pictures, but I would guess that the average person would find them somewhat boring.

As far as academic books go, this wasn't all that bad. However, I would have to be drunk to recommend it to anyone.

5 comments:

Brent Waggoner said...

I almost made it through the second paragraph before falling asleep.

Alyson said...

My only question is why you would take a class on the history of Cincinnati.

Nathan said...

Don't joke, drunk book recommendations have ruined lives and families forever.

Carlton Farmer said...

I hate you all.

Christopher said...

Carlton has to be drunk to do a lot of things.