church and partly because you could not see it anyway because of a massive sandstone morrill arch thatthe stanfords had constructed on the dimensions of the arc de thatphe -- memorial arch the stanfords had constructed on the dimensions of the arc de triomphe. produced by the 19th-century , it depicted the progress of western civilization from antiquity to the stanford , dragging thelly railroad over the rocky mountains. and yet, we ought not trivialize the accomplishments or the significance of this railway either. is barely aand this suggestion -- merely a theestion to ponder, transcontinental railroad had and continues to have the kind of purchase on the american imagination that it does because it seemingly confirmed certain stories that americans love to tell about themselves. as richard white has written, this 1868 courier and ives print , westward the course of empire takes its way, is significant not because it is accurate, showing the railway leading people -- there is the public school, the log cabin, the public school in the foreground, people clearing the forest, and nature