Albuquerque weekly citizen. (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1891-19??, 1902-06-28
The ROCK ISLAND,
The System Now Embraces Seven
thousand Mics Of Track,
THE WORK OF EXTENSION.

..y t.. 'lat fhu Rock Island -U.
I.t .s h.u.Uf. to replace tho Great
ID. island N.UI. as M, UHI.Ia.
On. |.mHI. ID. f.. H.Et,ratiuu OFF .ur.
p. ...uus HH..h jID chicago. R0rh ..I
al a. pa .i, Railway company uuW
dominates and Includes calls forth
Iuu ,Lo pen oI thO etarAtIcIau icV
Irf r..iIHg facts IH, announcement
ls ut another lustatou of the pro
-I..s OBJ. railway evolution Zoo these
rapid days. under which railroad con.
a..ln % generation ago of $50 miles
%. NO laOl track lying in single state.
la grown into system az 600 miles.
w tulcd into lines almost iuuumrra-
Tie rad.atinp INTO more than "a dozen
states and territories. says the Raii-
Nat Age
% was FIRST The Chicago q Rock
'II Railroad company chartered in
1871 whose single track 1855 miles long
I,I, cd the Mississippi IN July 1854.
lD. eight years ago and connected
lttIs city on lat, Michigan with a
I1.. village ou the great river The
Dbl sslppi broad ana Uuur.dcod then
iu aH its course. at FIRST bounded the
am tIoLs of tho projectors of this pic.
n,.r line hut in 1896 the then won.
81, tai work of bridging the Father Of
Waters being accomplished and the
western extension having been com.
mouCed under the name of the Missis
sipW q Missouri Railroad company
the two roads were consolidated under
the title of the Chicago. Rock Island &
Pacific railroad. and iu 1863 the Mis-
souri, river was rpa. he'd at Council
Buns Then there was one more
river 90 cross
After an interval OF years tho Chi
CagO. Kansas a Nebraska Railway
COMPANY took mp the work Of extern
sion beyond he Missouri into Kansas
and beyond. and was absorbed into the
parent company In 1891, the combined
roads having developed hy this time
into Jhc Great Rock Island Route
still later the Chicago. Rock Island a.
TeNa. rave title To a long extension
10 southwestern points. and the Chi
cago, Rock Island a Mexico ana sub
ordinate companies have but recently
carried the line on TO the Mexican bor
der a strai ght distance ot 400 miles
from Chicago Meantime the growth
has been going on west. north and
soUlh. by construction and purchase.
until the old tap root from Chicago to
Rork Island has spread ont into many
ln,s reaching from Illinois into Iowa,
Missouri Kansas. Nebraska Oklaho-
ma Indian Territory Texas, New Mex
leo Colorado. Minnesota, South pa
kota. Arkansas and Tennessee The
little city of Rock Island, which form.
ed the terminus of the original line, is
now "A way station through which
pours the traffic of 1000 miles of road.
hut is still honorcd and advertised -
the world 10y giving its name To the
Rock Island system TO whose growth
no bounds now seem 10 ho set. The
little Rock Island road Of lSu miles in
1854 which had increased 20 1900
miles at the beginning of the present
year. has within a few weeks added
nearly 200 miles more. and the ag-
gregation now loots mp as follows
Miles.
G. RI a p. east of Missouri
river ............. .......... roo
West of the Missouri river ..... 2,597
Recent additions
Choctaw, Oklahoma a Gulf....1.l65
Burlington Cedar Rapids n
northern 49,. ....... -,
St Louis Kansas City q Col
OradO .......,....... ........., lO5
bldl hb'r lcldUN nNoifUl W. -
1t was the Great Rock Island
Route when the mileage was small
compared 20 that OF neighhoring sys-
TENS, now that it has lcaped TO place
among the greatest. with great plans
of extension and absorption yet to be
fulfilled il has dropped adiectivcs and
risen TO the dignity of the simplest
possible designation Rock Island Sys-
tenn Orders have hpcu issued that
thu new title shall succeed 10 the old
u0 all cars signs stationery, maps,
lors tickets and other forms of OH
, al reading Meter. and the dozen or
more corporate titles that must main
tain a legal existence will disappear
from the public eve replaced for all
practical purposes by the two words,
Rock Island which told the destlna-
ton o' the road as II commenced its
growth iurtyCight years ago