James J. Hill

Hill built a transcontinental railroad around the economics of freight, an approach that still guides how rail networks are planned. He chose routes with easy grades to lower operating costs, built the line without public money, and developed traffic along it by promoting farming and settlement. The Great Northern was one of the few transcontinentals that never went bankrupt and later became part of Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Intermodal trains that carry containers from Pacific Northwest ports to the Midwest run on lines he planned.

• Intermodal FreightFreight moved by rail and truck in one box

• Cornelius Vanderbilt1794–1877 · Steamship and railroad magnate

• Burlington Northern Santa Fe Merger1995 · Two western railroads combine into BNSF
• First Transcontinental Railroad1869 · Rails from east and west meet at Promontory Summit
• Double-Stack Container Trains1984 · Trains carry containers stacked two high

1. Great Northern Railway (Minnesota Historical Society) mnhs.org
2. Hill, James J. (1838-1916) (HistoryLink) historylink.org