The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was a railway that operated across the northern tier of the western United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in central Montana on Sept. 8, 1883. The railroad served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. In addition the company had international lines to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and southeastern British Columbia, Canada. The company was headquartered first in Brainerd, Minnesota, then in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 1970 it merged with other lines to form the Burlington Northern Railroad. At the end of 1967 it operated 6784 route-miles, not including the 19 miles of Class II subsidiary Walla Walla Valley.
Read more about Northern Pacific Railway: Divisions, Passenger Service, Presidents, Chief Engineers, Notable and Preserved Equipment, Trademark Design and Origin
Famous quotes containing the words northern, pacific and/or railway:
“The northern sky rose high and black
Over the proud unfruitful sea,
East and west the ships came back
Happily or unhappily....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Really, there is no infidelity, nowadays, so great as that which prays, and keeps the Sabbath, and rebuilds the churches. The sealer of the South Pacific preaches a truer doctrine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)