The public conviction that a railroad linking the West and the East was an absolute necessity became so pronounced after the gold discoveries of '49 that Congress passed an act in 1853 providing for a survey of several lines from the Mississippi to the Pacific.

The history of the Erie Railroad ever since 1901 has been a record of progress

Consequently many large railroad systems of heavy capitalization bid fair to run into difficulties on the first serious falling off in general business

The United States as we know it today is largely the result of mechanical inventions, and in particular of agricultural machinery and the railroad. One transformed millions of acres of uncultivated land into fertile farms, while the other furnished the transportation which carried the crops to distant markets.

While no one railroad can completely duplicate another line, two or more may compete at particular points

The public conviction that a railroad linking the West and the East was an absolute necessity became so pronounced after the gold discoveries of '49 that Congress passed an act in 1853 providing for a survey of several lines from the Mississippi to the Pacific.

In the decade before the Civil War various north and south lines of railway were projected and some of these were assisted by grants of land from the Federal Government