Herbert H. Harwood, Jr.

Interesting biographies of the Van Sweringen brothers. I had heard of them but never knew anything about them. There was a good reason for this as they were intensely private and kept all information closely held. An excellent explanation of the byzantine financial schemes of the 20s and how the house of cards came tumbling down.

The finance portion was especially interesting because my paternal grandfather used many similar vehicles to amass wealth in the roaring 20s ( not to the same extent to be sure) then losing it all as the great depression deepened.

As a lover of history and trains, this bok should be essential reading for all of those who share these interests.… (mais)

A history of the operations of the van Sweringen brothers, who at their peak in 1929-1930 ran a vast railroad, mass transit and real estate empire from their (then brand-new) landmark Cleveland Union Terminal Building. This book tends to be pretty positive toward the brothers, lauding their vision, though to its credit it doesn't shy away from describing some of the financial shenanigans the brothers got into when they were scrabbling for cash; the author tends to try to minimize these. A lot of excellent photographic and map detail, and aside from a small handful of curious editorial glitches, generally well-edited. Recommended for railroad lovers, financial history lovers, or Cleveland lovers.… (mais)

My main purpose in reading this monograph was to get some sense of just what the relationship of this railroad was to the origins of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, as the legend is that the highway pretty much followed the railway cut; the answer to that is not to the degree you might imagine. Before that though Harwood throws you into the super-heated world of railroad building in 19th-century America when William H. Vanderbilt of the New York Central, and a coterie of Pittsburgh businessmen (including Andrew Carnegie), decided that they needed to put the screws to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The amazing thing to me is that they actually were going to punch a railroad through some the roughest terrain in the Keystone State, but at a certain point it dawned on the principals that there was no way that this project could be viable and J.P. Morgan finessed a deal that satisfied most of the relevant parties. This monograph will actually be quite interesting to readers other than enthusiasts of railroad history and students of American business, but it doesn't hurt to have driven the Pennsylvania Turnpike a few times just to get a sense of the daring and defiance behind this project!… (mais)