- [introduction to each episode]
- Michael Portillo: I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of America with a new travelling companion. Published in 1879, my Appletons' General Guide will steer me to everything that's novel, beautiful, memorable or curious in the United States. As I cross the continent, I'll discover America's "Gilded Age" when powerful tycoons launched a railway boom that tied the nation together and carved out its future as a super-power.