Timothy Starr Livres

New York's railroads were born of the cutthroat conflict of rate wars, bloody strikes and even federal graft. The railroad wars began as soon as the first line was chartered between Albany and Schenectady when supporters of the Erie Canal tried to block the new technology that would render their waterway obsolete. After the first primitive railroads overcame that hurdle, they began battling with one another in a series of rate wars to gain market share. Attracted by the success of the rails, the most powerful and cunning capitalists in the country--Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Daniel Drew and other robber barons--joined the fray. Timothy Starr's account of New York's railroad wars steams through the nineteenth century with stories of rate pools, labor strikes, stock corners, legislative bribery and treasury plundering the likes of which the world had never seen.

The town of Milton, New York, lies near the center of Saratoga County. It is crisscrossed by a series of rivers, which have played an important role in the town's development--most notably, the Kayaderosseras. Milton's only village, Ballston Spa, with the attraction of its rare mineral springs, was once among the country's most popular tourist destinations. One of the largest and most elegant hotels in the world, the Sans Souci, vied with a host of others for the patronage of thousands of travelers who made the pilgrimage each summer to partake in the "healing waters." When the tourist trade faded, it was replaced by a massive expansion of industry that was situated along the town's waterways. Among the most significant of these concerns were the mills of the "Paper Bag King" George West, Isaiah Blood's ax and scythe works, and the mammoth tannery of Samuel Haight. Today, its proximity to the state capital and other cities makes the town an increasingly popular residential area, complemented by a quaint and bustling business district in Ballston Spa.