The following Bicentennial Essay is the tenth and last in a series that has been appearing periodically, surveying how America has changed in its 200 years.
"An athlete of steel and iron with not a superfluous ounce of metal on it!" exclaimed William Dean Howells before the centerpiece of Philadelphia's International Exhibition celebrating our nation's 100th birthday. He was inspired to these words by the gigantic 700-ton Corliss steam engine that towered over Machinery Hall. When President Ulysses S. Grant and Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil turned the levers on May 10, 1876,...
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