This steel drivin' man beat a steam drill in a race to make a railroad tunnel but died with his "hammer in his hand"
.... Nelson 
asserts that a steam drill race at the Big Bend Tunnel would have been 
impossible... [DOC] [TLE] John Henry and the Coming of the Railroad - New River Gorge ... [PAR] Statue of John Henry, Talcott, WV The coming of the railroad through New River 
... from these workers and their enormous task; John Henry "The Steel Driving 
Man".