as national lines of communication. This idea no
doubt controlled the projectors of the Baltimore and Ohio, of the Erie,
and of the Boston and Albany roads. The first consolidation of any
importance took place in 1853, when eleven different roads between
Albany and Buffalo were united to form the New York Central. Five branch
roads were added to the system between 1855 and 1858. In 1864 Cornelius
Vanderbilt secured control of the Hudson River road, and in 1867 of the
New York Central, which lines he consolidated in 1869. By gaining soon
afterward control of the Lake Shore and Michigan Central and Southern
Canadian roads, he united under one management over 4,000 miles of
railroad between New York and Chicago, and thus created the first
through line between the East and the West.

As has already been stated, the Pennsylvania road gained control of the
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago in 1858 and thus extended its system
as far as Chicago. Through the absorption of other lines it reached an
extent of over 7,000 miles. The creation of this through route was
chiefly the work of Thomas A. Scott, at that time vice-president, and
later president, of the Pennsylvania railroad.

In 1874 the Baltimore and Ohio, under the management of John W. Garrett,
extended its system to Chicago, and became a competitor of the two older
lines in the transportation of through freight. At about the same time
two other parallel trunk lines were developed, the Grand Trunk on the
north, and the Erie, between the Lake Shore and Pennsylvania lines.
There were, therefore, in 1874 five rival trunk lines competing for the
business between the West and the seaboard.

During the same period large rival lines developed west of Chicago and
St. Louis. From the former city radiate the St. Paul and Northwestern
systems, each with from 6,000 to 8,000 miles; the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe with over 9,000 miles; then the Rock Island, the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy, the Illinois Central, the Chicago Great-Western,
and the Chicago and Alton, their systems ranging from 1,000 to 6,000
miles in extent. From St. Louis radiate the various branches of the
Missouri Pacific and the closely allied Wabash system, controlling
together some 10,000 miles of road.

This process of consolidation also went on in the Southern States,
though to a less extent. Their systems do not run parallel, like the
trunk lines, nor do they radiate from a common center, like the road