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81-655: The tunnel was constructed for the Great Northern Railway by the Walsh Construction Company and S.J. Groves and Sons (collectively known as Walsh–Groves) at a cost of nearly $ 44 million (equivalent to $ 316 million in 2023). It is part of a 60-mile (97 km) rerouting of the Great Northern Hi-Line that became a necessity due to construction of Libby Dam and subsequent creation of Lake Koocanusa . Work began on May 12, 1966. Drilling

162-509: A Bum ." In 1959, Hill High in St. Paul, Minnesota, was established as a school from the funds set aside from Hill's wife for education. The school, which was all-male, consolidated in 1971 with the all-female Archbishop Murray School to form Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, Minnesota. Hill Capital is a venture capital fund established in 2016 "aligned with James J. Hill's belief in the cooperation of

243-404: A Roman Catholic (born 1846, New York City); they had ten children: By early 1916, Hill began pouring more attention into philanthropy, donating thousands of dollars to various institutions as he privately struggled with a variety of increasingly painful ailments. His condition deteriorated quickly in mid-May, but even with the help of many respected doctors he was beyond saving. After falling into

324-491: A bow and arrow blinded him in the right eye. He had nine years of formal schooling . He attended the Rockwood Academy for a short while, where the head gave him free tuition. He was forced to leave school in 1852 due to the death of his father. By the time he had finished, he was adept at math, land surveying , and English. His particular talents for English and mathematics would be helpful in his career. After working as

405-420: A capital-intensive business during the economic downturn. In order to ensure that he did not lose his patronage during the crisis, Hill lowered rail tariff shipping rates for farmers and gave credit to many of the businesses he owned so they could continue paying their workers and starting a "10 dollar trip" (equal to $ 339.11 today) for immigrants. He also took strong measures to economize—in just one year, Hill cut

486-595: A clerk in Kentucky (during which he learned bookkeeping ), Hill decided to permanently move to the United States and settled in St. Paul, Minnesota , at the age of 18. His first job in St. Paul was with a steamboat company, where he worked as a bookkeeper. By 1860, he was working for wholesale grocers, for whom he handled freight transfers, especially dealing with railroads and steamboats. Through this work, he learned all aspects of

567-586: A coma, he died in his home in St. Paul, Minnesota , on May 29, 1916. Mary Theresa Hill died in 1922 and was buried next to her husband by the shore of Pleasant Lake on their North Oaks farm . Give me Swedes, snuff and whiskey, and I'll build a railroad through hell. Politically, Hill was a conservative Bourbon Democrat . The Democratic Party's continued enchantment with the populist William Jennings Bryan led Hill to support Republican presidential candidates William McKinley (1896 and 1900), Theodore Roosevelt (1904), and William Howard Taft (1908 and 1912). Hill

648-465: A goat William Kenney , one of the railroad's presidents, had used to haul newspapers as a boy. Locomotives and passenger cars were repaired and overhauled at the shops in St. Paul, Minnesota , while the shops at nearby St. Cloud were dedicated to freight cars beginning in 1890. In 1892, a new shop site was established five miles west of Spokane , Washington in Hillyard (named after James Hill) to serve

729-692: A monopoly. (Ironically, the Burlington Route, Northern Pacific, and Great Northern would later merge in 1970 to form the Burlington Northern Railroad .) This ended Hill's ability to maintain competitive rates in Asian countries and in the subsequent two years American trade with Japan and China dropped 40% (or $ 41 million). Hill moved on without the benefit of a central company, and acquired the Colorado and Southern Railway lines into Texas. He also built

810-515: A neighborhood of Spokane ), are named for him. Jim Hill Mountain near Stevens Pass in the Cascade Range is named after him, also. The introduced crop weed in Western US wheat-growing areas Sisymbrium altissimum also has a common name "Jim Hill Mustard", after the belief by farmers that it was spread from contaminated seed leaking out of railway stock along the railroads he controlled. In 1929,

891-628: A railroad. Stevens was an efficient administrator with remarkable technical skills and imagination. He discovered Stevens Pass through the Cascade Mountains, set railroad construction standards in the Mesabi Range, and supervised the construction of the Oregon Trunk Line. He then became the chief engineer of the Panama Canal . The logo of the railroad, a Rocky Mountain goat , was based on

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972-925: A route to California that rivaled the Southern Pacific Railroad 's route between Oregon and California. The GN route was further inland than the SP route and ran south from the Columbia River in Oregon. The GN connected with the Western Pacific at Bieber, California ; the Western Pacific connected with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe in Stockton, California , and together the three railroads (GN, WP, and ATSF) competed with Southern Pacific for traffic between California and

1053-456: A substantial profit. Hill noted that the secret to his success was "work, hard work, intelligent work, and then more work." During the Panic of 1873 , a number of railroads, including the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (StP&P), had gone bankrupt. The StP&P in particular was caught in an almost hopeless legal muddle. For James Hill it was a golden opportunity. For three years, Hill researched

1134-736: A superior alternative to both services offered by GNR. The Great Northern energetically promoted settlement along its lines in North Dakota and Montana, especially by Germans and Scandinavians from Europe. The Great Northern bought its lands from the federal government – it received no land grants – and resold them to farmers one by one. It operated agencies in Germany and Scandinavia that promoted its lands, and brought families over at low cost, building special colonist cars to transport immigrant families. The rapidly increasing settlement in North Dakota's Red River Valley along

1215-701: A time of deflation when prices were falling generally. In 1893, Hill began the process of looking for a source of labor other than Chinese workers. For a brief period of time, he hired Italian and Greek laborers, but company officials were not satisfied with their performance. Hill sent emissaries to the Pacific who found that Japan had the most potential in the market of "Oriental Trade," and he decided to capitalize on this opportunity. In this time he also began to focus his energies on securing trade with Asian countries. He offered Japanese Industrialists Southern cotton and would even ship it for free if they would compare it with

1296-561: A tourist attraction. GN constructed stations at East Glacier and West Glacier entries to the park, stone and timber lodges at the entries, and other inns and lodges throughout the Park. Many of the structures have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places due to unique construction, location, and the beauty of the surrounding regions. In 1931, the GN also developed the "Inside Gateway",

1377-470: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Great Northern Railway (U.S.) The Great Northern Railway ( reporting mark GN ) was an American Class I railroad . Running from Saint Paul, Minnesota , to Seattle , Washington , it was the creation of 19th-century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill and was developed from the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad . The Great Northern's route

1458-463: Is mentioned in the song "Jack Straw," written by Bob Weir and Robert Hunter and originally performed by The Grateful Dead. James Jerome Hill James Jerome Hill (September 16, 1838 – May 29, 1916) was a Canadian-American railway director. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway , which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest ,

1539-452: Is quoted as saying, "is the best possible line, shortest distance, lowest grades, and least curvature we can build. We do not care enough for Rocky Mountains scenery to spend a large sum of money developing it." Hill got what he wanted, and in January 1893 his Great Northern Railway , running from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington — a distance of more than 1,700 miles (2,700 km) —

1620-699: The Anglo-French Bond drive of 1915, which allowed the Allies to purchase much-needed foodstuffs and other supplies. In September 1915, the first public loan, the $ 500,000,000 Anglo-French loan, was floated after negotiations with the Anglo-French Financial Commission . Concomitantly, the resulting trade in munitions with England and France carried the United States from a depression in 1914 to boom years in 1915 and 1916. Hillsboro, North Dakota ; Hill County, Montana ; and Hillyard, Washington (now

1701-535: The Bank of Montreal ), and others to invest $ 5.5 million in purchasing the railroad. On March 13, 1878, the road's creditors formally signed an agreement transferring their bonds and control of the railroad to J.J. Hill's investment group. On September 18, 1889, Hill changed the name of the Minneapolis and St. Cloud Railway (a railroad which existed primarily on paper, but which held very extensive land grants throughout

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1782-724: The Catholic Church in St. Paul and throughout the northwest. Hill's historic home is located next to the cathedral, largely due to the special relationship Hill's wife, a practicing Catholic, had with the Diocese. The Hills maintained close ties with Archbishop John Ireland , and Hill was a major contributor to the Saint Paul Seminary, Macalester College , Hamline University , the University of St. Thomas , Carleton College , and other educational, religious and charitable organizations. He

1863-575: The Empire Builder today, running it over the old Great Northern's Northern Transcon north of St. Paul. The GN had commuter service in the Minneapolis area running between Great Northern Depot and Hutchinson. In 1951 the company owned 844 locomotives, including 568 steam, 261 diesel-electric and 15 all-electric, as well 822 passenger-train cars and 43.897 freight-train cars. The Great Northern had numerous paint scheme variations and color changes over

1944-623: The Libby Dam on the Kootenai River in the late 1960s. The United States Army Corps of Engineers built a new route through the Salish Mountains, including the 7-mile-long (11 km) Flathead Tunnel , second-longest in the United States, to relocate the tracks away from the Kootenai River. This route opened in 1970. The surviving portions of the older routes (from Columbia Falls to Kalispell and Stryker to Eureka), were operated by Watco as

2025-625: The Mission Mountain Railroad until April 1, 2020, when BNSF (GN's modern successor) took back control of the Kalispell to Columbia Falls section. The Great Northern mainline crossed the continental divide through Marias Pass, the lowest crossing of the Rockies south of the Canada–US border. Here, the mainline forms the southern border of Glacier National Park , which the GN promoted heavily as

2106-595: The Northern Pacific (which he had obtained with the help of his friend J. P. Morgan , when that railroad went bankrupt in the depression of the mid-1890s). Hill also wanted control of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad because of its Midwestern lines and access to Chicago. The Union Pacific Railroad was the biggest competitor of Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads. Although Great Northern and Northern Pacific were backed by J. P. Morgan and James J. Hill,

2187-533: The Northern Pacific tried to merge four times, in 1896, 1901, 1927, and 1955. This last attempt lasted from 1955 until final Supreme Court approval and merger in March 1970, which created the Burlington Northern Railroad . In 1995, Burlington Northern merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to become the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway . In 1867, James J. Hill married Mary Theresa Mehegan,

2268-607: The Northern Pacific Railway . In May 1879, the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway Co. (StPM&M) formed—with James J. Hill as general manager. His first goal was to expand and upgrade even more. Hill was a hands-on, detail-obsessed manager. A Canadian himself of Scotch-Irish Protestant ancestry, he brought in many men with the same background into high management. He wanted people to settle along his rail lines, so he sold homesteads to immigrants while transporting them to their new homes using his rail lines. When he

2349-618: The Northern Securities Company with the aim of tying together their three major rail lines. As the Hill-Morgan alliance formed the Northern Securities Company, Theodore Roosevelt became president and turned his energies against the great trusts that were monopolizing trade. Roosevelt sent his Justice Department to sue the Northern Securities Company in 1902. The Supreme Court in 1904 ordered it to be dissolved as

2430-620: The Pacific Northwest . With a terminus at Superior, Wisconsin, the Great Northern was able to provide transportation from the Pacific to the Atlantic by taking advantage of the shorter distance to Duluth from the ocean, as compared to Chicago. Between 1891 and 1917 GNR built a number of railway branch lines across the border with Canada. These lines were built to provide service to the city of New Westminster, Victoria (via ferry connection) and

2511-653: The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway , merged to form the Burlington Northern Railroad . The BN operated until 1996 when it merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. GN operated various passenger trains, but the Empire Builder was their premier passenger train. It was named in honor of James J. Hill, known as the "Empire Builder." Amtrak still operates

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2592-412: The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway . By the time of his death in 1916, James J. Hill was worth more than $ 63 million, equivalent to $ 1,764,000,000 today, and over $ 200 million in related assets. When his estate was divided his widow received over $ 16 million, and each of his children received almost $ 4 million; $ 1.5 million was paid in income and inheritance taxes. The Great Northern Railway and

2673-449: The 732nd Railroad Operating Battalion (ROB). They were one of two spearhead ROBs. The 732nd operated in support of the Patton's 3rd Armored Division crossing into Germany with them. The Officers of the 732nd were all previous employees of the Great Northern. On March 2, 1970, the Great Northern, together with the Northern Pacific Railway , the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and

2754-720: The East. The very first predecessor railroad to the company was the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad owned by William Crooks . He had gone bankrupt running a small line between St. Paul and Minneapolis . He named the locomotive he ran for himself and the William Crooks would be the first locomotive of the Great Northern Railway. J.J. Hill convinced New York banker John S. Kennedy , Norman Kittson (a wealthy fur trader friend), Donald Smith (a Hudson's Bay Company executive), George Stephen (Smith's cousin and president of

2835-445: The Great Northern Railway inaugurated a long-distance passenger train extending from Chicago to Seattle, and named it the Empire Builder in his honor. The train served as Great Northern's flagship train, and is still operated today by Amtrak . using former Great Northern tracks west of St. Paul. The James J. Hill House in St. Paul, is a National Historic Landmark . In 1887, the Great Northern's first company headquarters building

2916-872: The Great Northern Railway, in December 1889, and offered an easier route across the Rockies than that taken by the Northern Pacific. The Great Northern reached Seattle on January 7, 1893. In 1898 Hill purchased control of large parts of the Mesabi Range iron mining district in Minnesota, along with its rail lines. The Great Northern began large-scale shipment of ore to the steel mills of the Midwest. The Great Northern energetically promoted settlement along its lines in North Dakota and Montana, especially by Germans and Scandinavians from Europe. The Great Northern bought its lands from

2997-551: The Hill Library's HillSearch service to provide business information resources to small businesses nationwide. The Hill Library has developed numerous online programs and now serves millions of small business owners worldwide. In The Great Gatsby , Hill is the man whom Gatsby's father says Gatsby would have equalled if he had lived long enough. Hill and his railway are mentioned in the Harry McClintock song " Hallelujah, I'm

3078-519: The Midwest and Pacific Northwest) to the Great Northern Railway. On February 1, 1890, he consolidated his ownership of the StPM&;M, Montana Central Railway , and other rail lines to the Great Northern. The Great Northern had branches that ran north to the Canada–US border in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana. It also had branches that ran to Superior, Wisconsin , and Butte, Montana , connecting with

3159-492: The Minnesota border between 1871 and 1890 was a major example of large-scale "bonanza" farming. During World War II, the Army moved its Military Railway Service (MRS) headquarters to Fort Snelling , Minnesota. The MRS worked collaboratively with commercial railroading in the U.S. The Great Northern sponsored the 704th Grand Railroad Division. It was the second Grand Division that the Army stood up. The Great Northern also sponsored

3240-670: The R Class 2-8-8-2 around 1927 which was the largest steam locomotive in the world at the time. From there the mainline crossed the Cascade Mountains through the Cascade Tunnel under Stevens Pass , reaching Seattle, Washington , in 1893, with the driving of the last spike at Scenic, Washington, on January 6, 1893. The Great Northern electrified Steven's Pass and briefly owned the electric Spokane and Inland Empire Railway . The deadliest avalanche in US history swept two Great Northern trains off

3321-638: The Red River Transportation Company, which offered steam boat transportation between St. Paul and Winnipeg. By 1879 he had a local monopoly by merging with Norman Kittson . In 1867, Hill entered the coal business, and by 1879 it had expanded five times over, giving Hill a local monopoly in the anthracite coal business. During this same period, Hill also entered into banking and quickly managed to become member of several major banks' boards of directors . He also bought out bankrupt businesses, built them up again, and then resold them—often gaining

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3402-466: The Red River Valley running through the region. The rapidly increasing settlement in North Dakota's Red River Valley along the Minnesota border between 1871 and 1890 was a major example of large-scale "bonanza" farming. Six months after the railroad reached Seattle came the deep nationwide depression called the Panic of 1893 . Hill's leadership became a case study in the successful management of

3483-471: The StP&;P and finally concluded that it would be possible to make a good deal of money off the StP&P, provided that the initial capital could be found. Hill teamed up with Norman Kittson (the man he had merged steamboat businesses with), Donald Smith , George Stephen and John Stewart Kennedy . Together they not only bought the railroad, they also vastly expanded it by bargaining for trackage rights with

3564-618: The Summit Avenue residence, Hill had the family's old house, which he had constructed in 1878, razed. After the death of Hill's wife in 1921, the house was donated to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis . It was obtained by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1978 and today is operated as a museum and gallery. Though a Protestant , Hill maintained a strong philanthropic relationship with

3645-602: The Twin Cities, across North Dakota and eastern Montana. The line then crossed the Rocky Mountains at Marias Pass. It then followed the Flathead River and then Kootenai River to Bonners Ferry, Idaho , south to Sandpoint, Idaho , west to Newport, Washington , and then to Spokane, Washington . The company town and extensive railroad facility of Hillyard, Washington was named after James J. Hill and briefly manufactured

3726-538: The Union Pacific was backed not only by its president, Edward H. Harriman , but by the extremely powerful William Rockefeller and Jacob Schiff . Quietly, Harriman began buying stock in Northern Pacific with the intention of gaining control of Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy. He was within 40,000 shares of control when Hill learned of Harriman's activities and quickly contacted J. P. Morgan, who ordered his men to buy everything they could get their hands on. The result

3807-512: The Vancouver, Westminster and Yukon Railway Company (VW&Y). He ousted its president John Hendry, thereby worsening the problems, prolonging the delays, and adding to the costs of taking over the VW&;Y. Hill's top aides were careless about details, bookkeeping, correspondence, and reports. With 1901 and the start of the new century, James Hill now had control of both the Great Northern Railway, and

3888-453: The federal government—it received no land grants—and resold them to farmers at cheap prices. It operated agencies in Germany and Scandinavia that promoted its lands, and brought families over at low cost. Hill also invested in founding schools and churches for these communities and promoted a variety of progressive techniques to ensure they prospered. This "Dakota Boom" peaked in 1882 as 42,000 immigrants, largely from northern Europe, poured into

3969-504: The first official train through the tunnel, a 21-car passenger special carrying 1,200 area residents who were offered the opportunity to travel a circular route from Libby and back on both the new and old rail lines. Official records indicate that two people were killed in two separate incidents during construction, both occurring after drilling was complete. As of 2022 the tunnel is used by about 40 freight trains each day as well as Amtrak 's Empire Builder . Maximum speed through

4050-428: The formation of the Brazilian Iron Ore Company to tap that nation's rich mineral deposits. Near the end of his life, Hill played what a recent biographer , Albro Martin, called his "last and greatest role." After the first punishing year of World War I , the Allied Powers desperately needed financial support to continue the war effort. To that end, Hill was a major figure in the effort launched by J.P. Morgan to float

4131-432: The freight and transportation business. During this period, Hill began to work for himself for the first time. During the winter months when the Mississippi River was frozen and steamboats could not run, Hill started bidding on other contracts and won several. Because of his previous experiences in shipping and fuel supply, Hill was able to enter both the coal and steamboat businesses. In 1870, he and his partners started

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4212-458: The iron range of Minnesota and copper mines of Montana. In 1898 Hill purchased control of large parts of the Mesabi Iron Range in Minnesota and its rail lines. The Great Northern began large-scale shipment of ore to the steel mills of the Midwest. The railroad's best-known engineer was John Frank Stevens , who served from 1889 to 1903. Stevens was acclaimed for his 1889 exploration of Marias Pass in Montana and determined its practicability for

4293-417: The new city of Vancouver. The first line was built between 1891 and 1893 providing a connection between Seattle and New Westminster. This line crossed at Blaine, passed through Cloverdale and terminated in Brownsville. In 1903 GNR constructed a line running from Cloverdale to Port Guichon (Present day Ladner, BC ). A ferry service from the port provided service to Victoria and Vancouver Island. In 1909 this line

4374-535: The northern Great Plains , and the Pacific Northwest in the United States . Because of the size of this region and the economic dominance exerted by the Hill lines, Hill became known during his lifetime as "The Empire Builder", and died in 1916 with a fortune of about 63 million dollars. His former home, James J. Hill House , is now a museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota . James J. Hill was born September 16, 1838, in Eramosa Township, Upper Canada (now Ontario ) to James Hill Jr. and Ann Dunbar. A childhood accident with

4455-437: The production, distribution and exchange of wealth as outlined in his writings". The Hill library owns 75 shares. As of September 2016, the fund is not yet closed. In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum . A bust of Hill is located on the University of Washington campus in Seattle , Washington . It is currently situated in front of More Hall, which

4536-431: The rail lines. Between 1883 and 1889, Hill built his railroads across Minnesota , into Wisconsin , and across North Dakota to Montana . When there was not enough industry in the areas Hill was building, Hill brought the industry in, often by buying out a company and placing plants along his railroad lines. By 1889, Hill decided that his future lay in expanding into a transcontinental railroad . "What we want," Hill

4617-401: The railroad right-of-way. In Kalispell, Montana the original Great Northern grade from 1892 has been converted into a trail. The trail starts in Kila, MT, and goes to Kalispell Montana, travelling through downtown, right past the Kalispell Depot. The section of rails from Kila to West Kalispell was taken out in the early 1900s, while the section from downtown to where the current end of rail is,

4698-412: The railroads were making too much profit, they might see this as an opportunity to force lowering of the railway tariff rates. Hill avoided this by investing a large portion of the railroad's profit back into the railroad itself—and charged those investments to operating expense. It was at this point that Hill went from general manager to the official president of StPM&M, and thereafter decided to expand

4779-429: The railway's expense of carrying a ton of freight by 13%. Because of these measures, Hill not only stayed in business, but also increased the net worth of his railroad by nearly $ 10,000,000 (equal to $ 339,111,111 today). Meanwhile, nearly every other transcontinental railroad went bankrupt. His ability to ride out the depression garnered him fame and admiration. Hill saved money by repeatedly cutting wages, made possible by

4860-436: The resulting dirt to fill in the east end of False Creek. In 1915, on this infill, the GNR opened Union Station, the terminus of its rail line in Vancouver. Its service to Vancouver and Victoria experienced competition from a partnership between Northern Pacific and Canadian Pacific. This competing service terminated at Pacific Station in Downtown Vancouver and from there offered direct steamship service to Victoria, thus offering

4941-479: The road further into undeveloped Western territories. In a series of the earliest public relations campaigns, contests were held to promote interest in the railroad and the ranchlands along its route. Fred J. Adams used promotional incentives such as feed and seed donations to farmers getting started along the line. Contests were all-inclusive, from the largest farm animals to the largest freight carload capacity, and were promoted heavily to immigrants and newcomers from

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5022-505: The route planning himself, travelling over proposed routes on horseback. The key to the Great Northern line was Hill's use of the previously unmapped Marias Pass . The pass had initially been described by Lewis and Clark in 1805, but no one since had been able to find it so Hill hired Santiago Jameson to search it out. Jameson discovered the pass 1889 and it shortened the Great Northern's route by almost one hundred miles. The pass had been discovered by John Frank Stevens , principal engineer of

5103-429: The settlers locating near his railroads. An enthusiastic conservationist, Hill was invited by President Theodore Roosevelt to a governors' conference on conservation of natural resources, and later appointed to a lands commission. Drawing on his experience in the development of Minnesota's Iron Range, Hill was, during 1911–1912, in close contact with Gaspard Farrer of Baring Brothers & Company of London regarding

5184-548: The short staple cotton they were using with the promise of a refund if they were dissatisfied, which they were not. With these friendly relations established, Hill managed to secure the industrializing Japanese order for 15,000 tons of rails against competition from England and Belgium. From 1886 to 1905, American exports to Japan leapt from $ 7.7 million a year (equal to $ 261,115,556 today) to $ 51.7 million, equal to $ 1,753,204,444 today. Leonard says that after 1900 Hill exhibited poor business judgment regarding one Canadian subsidiary,

5265-417: The tracks at Wellington, Washington by the Cascade Tunnel killing 96 people. The mainline west of Marias Pass has been relocated twice. The original route over Haskell Pass , via Kalispell and Marion , Montana, was replaced in 1904 by a more circuitous but flatter route via Whitefish and Eureka , joining the Kootenai River at Rexford, Montana . A further reroute was necessitated by the construction of

5346-495: The tunnel is 50 miles per hour (80 km/h). The north portal contains a ventilation system to clear the tunnel of diesel locomotive exhaust and provide cooling air to eastbound locomotives, as there is an uphill grade heading eastbound. This United States rail–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This United States tunnel–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about transportation in Montana

5427-438: The western half of the GN system. The mainline began at Saint Paul, Minnesota, heading west along the Mississippi River bluffs, crossing the river to Minneapolis on a massive multi-piered stone arch bridge just below the Saint Anthony Falls . The bridge ceased to be used as a railroad bridge in 1978, becoming a pedestrian river crossing with excellent views of the falls and of the lock system. The mainline headed northwest from

5508-405: The years, but Rocky the goat was consistently featured. In addition to the Stone Arch Bridge, parts of the railway have been turned into pedestrian and bicycle trails. In Minnesota, the Cedar Lake Trail is built in areas that were formerly railroad yards for the Great Northern Railway and the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway . Also in Minnesota, the Dakota Rail Trail is built on 26.5 miles of

5589-495: Was a supporter of free trade and was one of the few supporters of free trade with Canada. In St. Paul, the city's main library building and the adjoining Hill Business Library were funded by him. In addition, he donated to numerous schools, including the Saint Paul Seminary . Hill was a member of the Jekyll Island Club (aka The Millionaires Club) on Jekyll Island , Georgia , along with J. P. Morgan and William Rockefeller . In 1891, after three years of building, construction

5670-419: Was barrel-vaulted ceilings constructed of brick and railroad steel rails that held up a layer of sand several inches deep. The theory was that if a fire broke out and the ceiling caved in, the sand would drop and retard or suppress the fire. Hill was intimately involved in the planning and construction (1914–1916) of a new company headquarters in St. Paul (to be known as the Great Northern Office Building), which

5751-436: Was chaos on Wall Street. Northern Pacific stock was forced up to $ 1,000 per share. Many speculators, who had sold Northern Pacific " short " in the anticipation of a drop in the railroad's price, faced ruin. The threat of a real economic panic loomed. Neither side could win a distinct advantage, and the parties soon realized that a truce would have to be called. The winners of that truce were Hill and Morgan, who immediately formed

5832-574: Was completed on Hill's new family home at 240 Summit Avenue in St. Paul. Over 400 workers labored on the project. Built at a cost of $ 930,000 and with 36,000 square feet (3,300 m ), the James J. Hill House was among the city's largest. As with his business dealings, Hill supervised the construction and design himself, hiring and firing several architects in the process. The house has many early electrical and mechanical systems that predate widespread adoption in modern domestic structures. Upon completion of

5913-456: Was completed on June 21, 1968 when President Lyndon B. Johnson ceremoniously triggered a final explosion from a circuit connected via telephone to the White House . Finishing work continued for the following two years, and the tunnel, along with the entire rerouted rail line it is a part of, opened on November 1, 1970. An opening ceremony was held on November 7, 1970 and included the passage of

5994-473: Was completed. The Great Northern was the first transcontinental built without public money and just a few land grants , and was one of the few transcontinental railroads not to go bankrupt. Hill chose to build his railroad north of the competing Northern Pacific line, which had reached the Pacific Northwest over much more difficult terrain with more bridges, steeper grades, and tunnelling. Hill did much of

6075-706: Was constructed in St. Paul. It was designed by James Brodie , who also built the Hill house on Summit Avenue. The 1887 building was converted between 2000 and 2004 to a 53 unit condo in the Historic Lowertown District of St. Paul . Hill had seen the devastation done downtown by the Great Chicago Fire . As a result, one feature Hill integrated into the construction of the 1887 company headquarters (the Great Northern General Office Building)

6156-599: Was extended from Cloverdale to Huntingdon. Service from Blaine to New Westminster was redirected in 1909 over a new line past White Rock, across Mud Bay, through Annieville and on to Brownsville. After a new railway bridge was completed across the Fraser River from Brownsville to New Westminster the GNR extended its railway line to Vancouver. Between 1910 and 1913 GNR excavated the Grandview Cut to give it access to False Creek and used

6237-410: Was looking for the best path for one of his tracks to take, he went on horseback and scouted it personally. Under his management, StPM&M prospered. In 1880, its net worth was $ 728,000 (equal to $ 22,984,717 today); in 1885 it was $ 25,000,000, equal to $ 847,777,778 today. One of his challenges at this point was the avoidance of federal action against railroads. If the federal government believed that

6318-606: Was taken out in 2021. Further west, the Iron Goat Trail in Washington follows the late 19th-century route of the Great Northern Railway through the Cascades and gets its name from the railway's logo. The Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad that James J. Hill purchased in 1929 became a bicycle path between Spokane, Wa and Coeur d'Alene, Id. and Spokane, Wa. and Pullman, Wa. Appearances in popular culture: The Great Northern

6399-626: Was the first major donor to the Marquette University School of Medicine. In order to generate business for his railroad, Hill encouraged European immigrants to settle along his line, often paying for Russian and Scandinavian settlers to travel from Europe. To promote settlement and revenue for his rail business, Hill experimented with agriculture and worked to hybridize Russian wheat for Dakota soil and weather conditions. He also ran model experimental farms in Minnesota, such as North Oaks , to develop superior livestock and crop yields for

6480-401: Was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the U.S. In 1970, the Great Northern Railway merged with three other railroads to form the Burlington Northern Railroad , which merged in 1996 with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway . The Great Northern was built in stages, slowly creating profitable lines, before extending

6561-497: Was to house the corporate staffs of the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific and Hill's banking enterprises. The 14-story building cost $ 14 million to construct. Hill's heirs established the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, which is considered by the Small Business Administration the premier source for publicly accessible practical business information in the United States, and many SBA programs rely on

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