As a junior wordsmith, I love etymology.
Railroad land grants and related political chicanery undoubtedly had a great deal to do with the origin. It’s felicitous because it doesn’t just evoke the physicality of a massive machine barrelling through the landscape, and it doesn’t even just evoke the sense many had that the railroads — with federal imprimatur and, sometimes, eminent domain — built their lines with little regard for local opinion (generally for, unless bypassed), but also evokes the powerful political relationships associated with the industry in the 19th century — particularly (and notably six years prior to the Barbour speech) the Credit Mobilier scandal, which reached into the Grant administration (and tangentially, the prior Johnson and Lincoln administrations).
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