The only water-level door through the Cascades, and two railroad kings raced to own both banks of it.

A head-on collision on a single Massachusetts track in 1841 gave us the modern org chart. The AI boom is about to test it.

Before the tunnel, the Great Northern climbed Stevens Pass on eight switchbacks, backing over the summit at four percent.

Bored 7.8 miles through granite in three years, the 1929 Cascade Tunnel took Great Northern's trains down off the killing slopes for good.

In 1887, at least 31 Chinese gold miners were murdered in Hells Canyon. No one was ever convicted.

Seventy-two hours after Wellington, the Selkirks took 58 more men — the deadliest week the high iron ever knew.

March 1, 1910 — an avalanche swept two Great Northern trains into a canyon, killing 96. The deadliest avalanche in U.S. history.

Dynamite, sharpshooters, and hand-to-hand combat as two railroad titans warred up Oregon's Deschutes Canyon.

Alone in a Montana blizzard, John F. Stevens found the pass that completed a transcontinental dream.

Two crews bored a mountain from opposite sides, racing for a $1,000 prize and the future of Puget Sound.

How the Northern Pacific turned an Idaho spud into the most famous meal on American rails.