Illinois Central Railroad

One of the earliest railways to be built in the interior of the USA, running between the north of Illinois and the town of Cairo, in the far south of the state at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It was completed in 1856, and was regarded as one of the engineering marvels of its day, as it crossed largely uninhabited Prairie land, which it quickly helped populate.

The original network of the Illinois Central extended over 1,125 km/700 mi, and incorporated a branch to Chicago that was soon to become the main line. Construction was made possible by the donation of two and a half million acres of public land to the state by Congress; this land-grant system was eagerly taken up by other railways, which soon developed a powerful lobbying system in Washington. By the 1890s the Illinois Central had reached New Orleans, Louisiana, and its connections shifted much trade from the Mississippi River valley to the east. From the 1850s it also acted as an important commuter line within the Chicago area. In the 20th century, the railway was a major route north for poor African-Americans from the southern states seeking work in the industrial cities of the north.