It is the dawn of 1861, and nothing exciting seems to be happening in the sleepy area of northeastern New Jersey known as Pascack. When the Rebellion breaks out in South Carolina in mid-April, construction of a rail line from New York City to the area is suspended indefinitely. Meanwhile, the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad moves ahead from two directions between Omaha and Sacramento, and will connect at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869. Resumption of construction of the rail line to Pascack in March 1869 causes great anticipation, because it will link the area by rail with the west coast of the United States.
The northward extension of the railroad from New York City ushers in a building boom that puts Westwood on the map, and drives the development of infrastructure and technology. See how the railroad impacts the lives of the Bogert and Brickell families, who own land in the immediate vicinity of the new train depot. Come watch the arrivals of new businesses, religious institutions, recreational and social organizations, a fire department, local government, bicycles, automobiles, and more. See the advent of the telegraph, public water service, telephone service, electric service, and gas service.
This book is well suited for college level Sociology and Metropolitan Studies curriculums. Parts of the book have also been used as segments of Management, Marketing, and Consumer Behavior business courses at St. Peter's University in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The focus of the segments, which were presented as interactive case studies, was the two hotels that were established in Westwood when the railroad was extended through the village in 1870. Titled Westwood Hotel Wars, 1871-1885, the case studies address the competition between the two hotels, one on each side of the railroad tracks, and their efforts to survive at an early time when the population was not yet large enough to support two hotels.
