American railroad track miles has more than…

American railroad track miles has more than doubled in the twenty-five years after the American Civil War changing the face of America forever.

American railroads allow products made in the East to be shipped to the expanding West less expensively than in previous years.

This allows for an economy of scale—larger, more efficient factories.

The agricultural heartland of America is no longer confined to a market of single day's trip by wagon.

Railroad and railroad construction have become one of the largest industries during this era.

By 1881, one out of thirty-two people in the United States is either employed by a railroad or engaged in railroad construction.

Starting about 1877, two great railroad developers, William H. Vanderbilt and Jay Gould, had begun competing for the railroad traffic along the south shore of the Great Lakes.

By 1878, William Vanderbilt had gained a monopoly on rail traffic between Buffalo, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Chicago, because he owns the only railroad linking these cities—the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway.

In addition, he is the richest man in America at this time.

By 1881, Gould, who is considered the most ruthless financial operator in America, controls about fifteen percent of all U.S. railroad mileage, most of it west of the Mississippi River.

Gould's major railroad east of the Mississippi River is the three hundred and thirty-five-mile- (five hundred and thirty-nine kilometer-) Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway (Wabash).

The Wabash mainline runs from St. Louis, Missouri to Toledo, Ohio where it is forced to deliver its railroad traffic to Vanderbilt's Lake Shore Railroad for delivery to the eastern United States.

Gould and Vanderbilt together oversee all east-west rail traffic in the mid-west.

The Seney Syndicate, owners of a three hundred and fifty mile-mile (five hundred and sixty kilometer) railroad, the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, are interested in tapping new sources of revenue.

The stage is set for the creation of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad.

The Seney Syndicate, headed by George I. Seney, had met at Seney's New York bank and organized the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company on February 3, 1881.

The original proposal for the NYC&StL is a three hundred and forty-mile (five hundred and fifty kilometer) railroad west from Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois with a three hundred and twenty-five-mile (five hundred and twenty-five kilometer) branch to St. Louis, Missouri.