Soldier. Spymaster. Builder. Grenville Dodge fought to preserve a nation and connect a continent.
General Dodge and the Transcontinental Railroad
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Coming June 2026
As a Civil War general, intelligence pioneer, and chief engineer for the Union Pacific, Grenville M. Dodge fought to preserve a nation and connect a continent. His is a story of war, expansion, and the forces that bound a nation together.
Transcript
The thought of having a connection to the west was something that George Washington dreamed about.
And I think for Dodge, the future is out there in the West and the possibilities are endless.
He came out and tried to build a railroad. He's hoping to have a railroad that's going to be funded by this government and the people of the union. And it was I I think that was something worth fighting for.
And that's why he said, you know, let rivers run with blood, but the union must not be dissolved. If it goes away, everything that's good about being an American goes away.
And for Dodge to realize his dream of building a transcontinental railroad, the Union was what needed to be saved.
He's thinking about something that people have been thinking about a long time by that time. What's the best way to get there?