The Pony Express is one of the most recognizable symbols of the American West, yet it ran for only about 18 months, grossed roughly $90,000 against $200,000 in costs, and drove its founders into bankruptcy. This episode strips away the Wild West show mythology to look at how the network actually worked and why the country needed it in 1860.

We cover the freighting titans Russell, Majors, and Waddell and their bid for a government mail contract, the two-month build-out of about 190 stations, 400 horses, and 80 riders, the mochila mail pouch, the $5 letter that equaled about two and a half days of a laborer's wages, the seven-day-and-17-hour delivery of Lincoln's election news, the Paiute War attacks, and the transcontinental telegraph that made the whole system obsolete in October 1861.

• Why stations sat 10 to 15 miles apart and wh ...