e
construction and maintenance of a bridge over the Mississippi at Rock
Island. The work was commenced in the fall of that year, and the bridge
was completed on April 21, 1856, it being then the only bridge spanning
the Mississippi River. The first division of the Mississippi and
Missouri Railroad, extending from Davenport to Iowa City, was completed
on the first of January, 1856, and was formally opened two days later. A
branch line to Muscatine was completed shortly thereafter. On the first
day of July the State of Iowa had in all sixty-seven miles of railroad,
bonded at $14,925 a mile, which at that time probably represented the
total cost of construction. The earnings of these sixty-seven miles of
road during the six months following July 1, 1856, amounted to $184,193,
or $2,749 per mile, which was equal to an annual income of about $5,500
per mile.

On the 15th of May, 1856, Congress granted to the State of Iowa certain
lands for the purpose of "aiding in the construction of railroads from
Burlington, on the Mississippi River, to a point on the Missouri River
near the mouth of the Platte River; from the city of Davenport, Iowa, by
way of Iowa City and Fort Des Moines, to Council Bluffs; from Lyons City
northwesterly to a point of intersection with the main line of the Iowa
Central Air Line Railroad near Maquoketa, thence on said line running as
near as practical to the forty-second parallel across the State; and
from the city of Dubuque to the Missouri River near Sioux City." The
grant comprised the alternate sections designated by odd numbers and
lying within six miles from each of the proposed roads. Provision was
also made for indemnity for all lands covered by the grant which were
already sold or otherwise disposed of.

The wisdom of the land-grant policy has been questioned. When these
grants were made it was believed by many that railroads would not and
could not be built in the West without such aid. While others did not
share this opinion, they at least supposed that land grants would
greatly stimulate railroad enterprise and lead to the early construction
of the lines thus favored.

The land grant of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad was a mere
donation for that part of the line which was already completed at the
time the grant was made; and the extension of this line, as well as the
construction of the other lines to which the grant applied, was not
made as fast as had been anticipated. The price o