 From 1913 to 1919, Harrison oversaw the extension of double-track on the railway's mainline between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia. The project was hampered by the war effort, but eventually covered the complete 638-mile (1,027 km) distance between the two cities. In 1916, Harrison acquired a railroad line that ran from Meridian, Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana. This brought Southern Railway's track total to more than 8,000 miles (13,000 km), covering 13 states. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, some military training camps were located in the south and much of the construction material used to build them was hauled over the Southern Railway. Harrison was elected chairman of a coordinating committee of railroad presidents, known as the War Board. Its five members were tasked with eliminating bottlenecks, and fostering cooperation between the various railroads.
