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Jill Jonnes

Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and Its Tunnels Paperback – March 25, 2008

by Jill Jonnes (Author)

108 ratings

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“Superb. [A] first-rate narrative” (The Wall Street Journal) about the controversial construction of New York’s beloved original Penn Station and its tunnels, from the author of Eiffel's Tower and Urban Forests

As bestselling books like Ron Chernow's Titan and David McCullough's The Great Bridge affirm, readers are fascinated with the grand personalities and schemes that populated New York at the close of the nineteenth century. Conquering Gotham re- creates the riveting struggle waged by the great Pennsylvania Railroad to build Penn Station and the monumental system of tunnels that would connect water-bound Manhattan to the rest of the continent by rail. Historian Jill Jonnes tells a ravishing tale of snarling plutocrats, engineering feats, and backroom politicking packed with the most colorful figures of Gilded Age New York.

Conquering Gotham will be featured in an upcoming episdoe of PBS's American Experience.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Conquering Gotham

“In the tradition of David McCullough’s narratives of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal . . . Intelligent history about building an indispensable part of our infrastructure.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Superb . . . [A] first-rate narrative.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“A readable and human account of how a few visionaries from the Pennsylvania Railroad connected the rest of the country to the nation’s greatest port, and how their Philadelphia-centric perspective doomed the world’s greatest train station.”
—The New York Times

“Impeccably researched and ravishingly detailed . . . delightful popular history.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Lush and lovely prose.”
—The Baltimore Sun

“Conquering Gotham is a well-written and well-researched account of an astoundingly ambitious undertaking. Ms. Jonnes skillfully weaves together the multifarious aspects of the project, from the technical complexities and political wrangling to the personalities of Cassatt and McKim.”
—New York Observer

“What’s clear from her riveting story is that it was every bit as hard to build great projects then as now—perhaps even harder.”
—New York Post

“New York City’s Pennsylvania Station’s sweeping story, involving engineering challenges, an inflexibly honest corporation leader, flexibly corrupt politicians, and street-level sociology, comes together marvelously in Jonnes’ admiring history of the undertaking.”
—Booklist

About the Author

Jill Jonnes is the author of Conquering Gotham, Urban Forests, Conquering Gotham, Empires of Light, and South Bronx Rising. She was named a National Endowment for the Humanities scholar and has received several grants from the Ford Foundation. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Product details

Publisher : Penguin Books; Illustrated edition (March 25, 2008)
Language : English
Paperback : 384 pages
ISBN-10 : 0143113240
ISBN-13 : 978-0143113249
Item Weight : 12 ounces
Dimensions : 5.55 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #465,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #158 in History of Railroads
- #203 in Railroad Travel Reference
- #749 in Architectural History

Customer Reviews:
108 ratings

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Hollis F. Veley III

It is too bad that this history of Penn Station stops short of ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

There is so much more that could have been included. This dwells more on the problems that Alexander Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, had with NYC politicos and their vested interests. It is too bad that this history of Penn Station stops short of the 21st century. It is too bad that CG does not go into how the Hudson River tubes evolved into predominantly providing commuter access for NJTransit into the now rat-like Penn Station that resulted from demo. Too bad that CG does not discuss the cornball scheme that would have resulted in a separate station to serve NJTransit known as the "tunnel to Macy's basement". Too bad that the author does not go into the probability that one or both tubes may be lost due to overuse, deferred maintenance and damage resulting from the Hurricane Sandy flooding. That circumstance was the result of a fiscal decision, wherein an additional two tubes under the Hudson, had they been constructed, would have greatly eased the nightmare that must now be faced...unless we get lucky and two new tunnels SERVING EXISTING PENN STATION can be constructed before the existing ones crumble. What was once a magnificent landmark was knocked down and replaced with an architectural monstrosity we know as the current Madison Square Garden. The difficulties of constructing all six tubes (which should have been eight) is described well.

4 people found this helpful

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SP3204

Amazing story of something we take for granted

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2014

Verified Purchase

Making my first visit to New York and arriving via Amtrak, I was fascinated by Penn Station. Knowing what is there now is not what was there when (and loving the visit to NYC), I decided I needed to learn more about it.

This is a fascinating story of engineering along with quite a bit of plain old ingenuity. The elements of the story - the tunnel, the station, the politics, the cronyism - all interlocked with New York at the turn of the last century is a tale of an amazing age of change. The station only lasted 50-some years, in some ways doomed from the beginning by the cars that were already running around on the streets at the time. The tunnels, however, are still there and serving magnificently.

It's hard to imagine this all transpiring without the vision of Alexander Cassat, the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad who made it all happen. After you read this, be sure to search the internet for the story of the station's demolition, it will surely sadden you to see it.

2 people found this helpful

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F. S. Wilson

A Sad Monument?

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2015

Verified Purchase

Anything about the Pennsylvania Railroad grabs my interest. When the biggest railroad undertakes construction of the biggest station in the biggest city in the USA, the subject swells on my radar. The auther covers the dreaming, the planning, the maneuvering and the unimaginable deployment of men and machines (and no doubt quite a few animals) that toiled so that Penn Station could arise. Not so widely known, and I have to include my self in this uninformed group before reading Conquering Gotham, is the fact that Penn Station never really succeeded. It failed to ignite a boom in Hell's Kitchen real estate that was predicted by its advocates, and for the final decade of its life was part of a (misguided) argument that held up the grimy monument as one of the causes of Hell's Kitchen's misfortunes. Much like the PRR's flagship Broadway Limited which was second to none in any aspect of First Class train travel, but a very distant second to the rival 20th Century Limited of the New York Central, Penn Station just wasn't as successful as it could or should have been. This in no way lets the short-sighted money people who caused Pennsylvania Station's shameful destruction off the hook. Thank you author Jonnes for bringing all this history to life.

2 people found this helpful

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Michael J. Fawcett

Anything to do With Old Penn Station

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2013

Verified Purchase

For a building I never saw, the old Penn Station is much on my mind, particularly when I see buildings in Charlotte imitate one or another aspect of the great station. But nobody is as audacious as architect Charles McKim was, nor as pioneering as the Pennsylvania Railroad executives who pressed to dig a tunnel under the river to bring passengers directly to Manhattan without having to take a ferry from New Jersey. What an achievement! It is a tragedy that we don't have McKim's massive monument to celebrate it with.

One person found this helpful

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Roy Williams

This book is a great read. Underneath these things is the "social ramble"

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2014

Verified Purchase

Penn Station resides in the mind of those of us who remember it. Jill Jones explains why this icon died. We live and die by Capitalist values: especially in Manhattan. This book is a great read. Underneath these things is the "social ramble". Jill Jones does a wonderful job of explaining how Mary Cassatt, the Gare du Quai d'Orsay, the IRT, Manhattan Property Values, Westside whore houses, the canny Vanderbilt mind and Historic Preservation merge and mix.

2 people found this helpful

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Jason

This is story you have to read.

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

I have read all of Jill's books and have not once been disappointed. I was a little leery about Conquering Gotham but it turned out to be a great story.
When I think of what we accomplish today (with the equipment we have) it almost pales to what they accomplished at the end of the 19th. century.
Jill Jones tells a wonderful story in such in an interesting and encompassing historical format.
Jay Fitzpatrick Author "Fear Itself"

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Selhurst Peter

Delve deep under Manhattan with this fascinating tale

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 25, 2016

Verified Purchase

A fascinating read and exploration of the trials and tribulations of the engineers and entrepreneurs who had to take on the massive problem of linking the mainland to Manhattan and Long Island. The flavour of the rough and tumble of American politics and life in New York City comes through strongly. Will appeal to historians, engineers, scientists, architects and lovers of New York City

Mr. Charles J. Calderone

a very detailed analysis of the construction of the Pennsylvannia ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

a very detailed analysis of the construction of the Pennsylvannia Railroad's station and the building of the tunnels that were needed to access the station in New York.There is also quite a lot of information on the politics of the USA at the time and what most legislators thought of the building of the tunnels into Manhattan