The US has contributed as much to rail technology as any other country in the world—or more than any other country. Americans invented the air brake47 and led the world in rail construction at the end of the 1800s. California businessmen helming the Central Pacific Railroad Company built all but a few hundred miles of the western portion of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s. The project spanned nearly 1,800 miles. It took just six years to finish. These days, six years is roughly the amount of time it takes California to realize that its bullet train needs to be pushed back by another
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