cost of the line from St. Joseph to Hastings, was $5,449,620.77, of which stockholders paid $1,400; $782,727.10 from State and municipal aid, and the remainder $4,665,493.67 from the proceeds of mortgage bonds. In 1874 the road passed into the hands of a Receiver, who operated it until the 29th of March, 1877, when it was re-organized under its present title. While in the hands of the Receiver the road was sold under foreclosure, and that portion in Kansas was re-organized under the name of the St. Joseph & Pacific, and that part in Nebraska, as the Kansas & Nebraska Railroad.

     The gross earnings, operating expenses and net earnings of the U. P. road, per mile, for the years named, were:

     The net earnings more than doubled during the first six years that the line was operated, and nearly doubled during the past six years.

     Statement of operations, yearly, for seven years

     The following is a comparative statement of passenger and freight earnings, including Omaha bridge:

     The equipment of the road in 1879 was as follows:

     Locomotives, 172; snow plows, 17; passenger coaches, first class, 15; second class, 19; emigrant, 63; sleepers, 27; mail, 9; express 9; baggage, 11. dinky-baggage, 12; officers' cars, 2; pay car, 1.

     Freight--Box cars, 1,548; flat cars, 164; coal cars, permanent, 287; coal cars, temporary, 593; coal hoppers, 394; coal, dumpers, 20; charcoal, 45; way cars, 11; hay cars, 96; water cars, 15; outfit cars, 10; ferry cars, 5; derrick, 4; derrick caboose, 4; oil tank, tubular, 1. Total passenger and freight equipment, 3,384.

UNION PACIFIC TRANSFER DEPOT.

     In accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court, as before mentioned, the Company have located their transfer depot at Dillonville, on the Iowa side, about midway between Council Bluffs and the river.

     The main line of which extends from the City of Plattsmouth, on the Missouri River, to Kearney Junction, where connections are made with the Union Pacific, a distance of 190 miles. This Company was organized under a liberal charter in 1869, with a capital stock of $7,500,000, which was divided into 75,000 shares, funded debt, first mortgage eight per cent. convertable [sic] bonds, dated July 1st, 1869, with semi-annual interest payable in January and July, and principal payable July 1st, 1894. On the 1st of May, 1871, the capital stock of the Company was increased to $12,000,000.

     The Company received a land grant from the Government amounting to 2,382,208 acres, also a grant from the State of Nebraska of 50,000 acres, and when they took possession of the Omaha & Southwestern road they acquired the land grant made to that line by the State, to the extent of 100,010 acres. It may be proper to state here that the Omaha & Southwestern road, although chartered from Omaha to Lincoln, was only built to the Platte River where it formed a junction with the B. & M. road, over which it secured track service into Lincoln until its transfer by lease to the latter line.

     On the 1st of August, 1879, the Company owned and operated in the State of Nebraska 443 miles, as follows: from Plattsmouth, via Lincoln, to Kearney Junction, 190 miles, where connections are made with the Union Pacific road; from Plattsmouth to Omaha, twenty-one miles, where connections are made with the U. P. O. & N. W., C. & N. W. and Chicago Rock Island & Pacific roads. In brief, at Omaha connections are made with lines radiating east, west, and north. From Lincoln to York, fifty-five miles; from Lincoln to Brownville, on the Missouri, sixty-five miles; from Crete to Beatrice, thirty miles; from Hastings to Bloomington, sixty-nine miles. The lines above mentioned traverse the following Counties, making connections with other lines at the points named: Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Otoe, Nemaha, Lancaster, Seward, York, Saline, Fillmore, Clay, Adams, Kearney, Buffalo, Webster, Franklin, and Gage; while their projected lines, some of which are under construction, traverse Hamilton, Hall, Merrick, Jefferson, Thayer, Nuckolls, Harlan, Furnas, Red Willow, Hitch-

cock, Dundy and Johnson Counties. The projected lines are as follows: From York to Aurora, in Hamilton County, twenty miles; from Aurora to Hastings twenty-two miles; from Aurora to Grand Island, sixteen miles; from Aurora to Central City, sixteen miles; from Beatrice to Red Cloud, 100 miles; from Bloomington to State Line, west, 150 miles; from Beatrice to Nemaha, sixty-five miles. These lines completed, the B. & M, will operate 832 miles of road in the State; roads that traverse and open up to vigorous commerce much of the richest and most beautiful and inviting portion of Nebraska. Nearly every mile of their line from Plattsmouth to Kearney Junction, passes through one of the richest farming countries to be found in the West.

     In brief, the B. & M. lines occupy the garden, as it were, of the Platte and Republican Valleys. This corporation has adopted and pursued from the date of its organization, a most liberal and comprehensive policy towards the country through which its lines of road are constructed. To a much larger extent than is usual in railway corporations, it has exhibited a disposition to make its interests and that of the country through which it passed, identical. In fact, the history and development of the Burlington & Missouri River road is most intimately interwoven with the development and prosperity of the great South Platte country; and the writer only echoes the popular voice, when he makes the statement .that every movement of this corporation has tended directly towards the material advancement of that beautiful portion of the State occupied by its lines, which has made it one of the most prosperous as well as popular roads in the west.

     Their lines are well and safely built; their bridges and culverts are constructed upon the most approved system; their rolling stock is ample, and their passenger equipment combines all of the more modern improvements for the speed, comfort and safety of passengers.

     The equipment of the B. & M. road in 1879 consisted in part of the following rolling stock: Sixteen locomotives, twelve passenger coaches, seven baggage and express cars, one hundred and fifty box cars, eighty-six platform cars, and forty-three coal cars; total two hundred and ninety-eight.

     The Company's general office is at Omaha, where they own a

fine new brick building, and give employment to a large number of persons. Their machine shops are at Plattsmouth, in which they employ some three hundred men. At Plattsmouth this line connects with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy road.

     The following is a statement of articles forwarded from, and received at stations on the Burlington & Missouri River Railway, in the South Platte country, for five years, ending December 31st, 1878:

     The channel of the river, at the point where the bridge crosses it, is only 344 feet, a narrowness that was secured by many years of riprapping, by the Railroad Company, who have constructed formidable piers and dikes of stone, on the Iowa side, in order to turn the channel permanently in the direction of the rocky bluffs on the Nebraska shore. These improvements, although attended by an enormous outlay of money, has so securely hemmed in the channel as to make the enterprise of bridging the stream an easy and comparatively cheap undertaking.

     The bridge is constructed of steel spans, of three hundred feet in length each. These spans are supported in the center and at the ends, by piers of great solidity, constructed of stone and iron. The substructure of these piers is the bed rock, which at that point is reached at fifty feet below low water mark. This work will be effected by compressed air, the machinery for which was procured at a large cost. The pier on the Nebraska shore, however, rests on the bed of the rock bluff which is at about low water mark. This bridge is approached from the Iowa side by a high grade of considerable length, while on the Nebraska side it is approached through a deep cut in the bluffs. The bridge is fifty feet above high water mark, thus doing away with the necessity of a draw.

     Now owned and operated by the Burlington & Missouri River Road, which extends from Nemaha City, in Nemaha County, on the Missouri, to York, in York County, a distance of 136 miles, passing in its course through Brownville, Nebraska City, Syracuse, Palmyra, Bennett, Lincoln and Seward, was organized in 1871, under the title of the Midland Pacific Railroad. The line was built from Nebraska City, to Lincoln, a distance of fifty-eight miles, in 1871 and extended to Seward, eighty-three miles from Nebraska City, in 1874. It was the intention of the original Company to build the line to Fort Kearney, or to some point further east on the Union Pacific road. A branch line was also projected from the main line, at some point in Otoe County, to Fort Riley in Kansas. The line was, however, sold under foreclosure, and a company re-organized under the title of the Nebraska Railway, and was operated as such until it passed

into the hands of the B. & M. Company, in 1876, who extended the line west from Seward to York, its present terminus, and from Nebraska City to Nemaha City, its present southeastern terminus. This line passes through the rich farming Counties of Nemaha, Otoe, Lancaster, Seward and York, connecting at Brownville, on the Missouri River, with the Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs road, and at Lincoln with the entire system of railways radiating from that center.

     The original Company were the recipients of a land grant to aid in the construction of their line from Nebraska City to Seward, of 10,184,448 acres. By an Act of the State Legislature, approved February 22d, 1875, the Company were also granted a certain amount of Saline lands, but as it did not comply with the conditions of the grant, such lands reverted back to the State.

     Operated since 1872 under a perpetual lease by the Burlington and Missouri River Road, was built from Omaha to Lincoln, a distance of sixty-eight miles, by rail, in 1869, and was the second railway projected in the State. Among the original stock-holders were S. S. Caldwell, President; John Y. Clopper, Clinton Briggs, Henry Gray, Frank Murphy, A. S. Paddock, and Frank Smith.

     This branch of the B. & M in connection with the Atchison & Nebraska, and the Missouri and Pacific, forms a through line from Omaha to St. Louis, on the west side of the Missouri River.

     Formerly The Omaha & Northwestern was commenced in 1869, and completed to Herman, a distance of forty miles, in 1871. In 1876 it was extended to Tekamah, the County Seat of Burt County, a distance of fifty-two miles, from Omaha. This line traverses the eastern portions of Douglas, Washington and Burt Counties, and is a most important outlet for the produce of the highly cultivated and prosperous country through which it runs. It is being extended during the present year to Oakland, in the famous Logan Valley, a flourishing little town, situated near the west line of Burt County, about sixteen miles from Tekamah.

     This line will in all probability be extended north and west through the rapidly developing Counties of Cuming, Black Bird,

Wayne, Pierce, and Knox to Niobrara, a thriving little city situated at the junction of the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers. At Blair, the County Seat of Washington County, the O. & N. W. crosses the Sioux City and Pacific road, which connection furnishes an outlet both east and west for passengers and freight, while at Omaha it connects with the railway system of Nebraska. The road is of great value to the country through which it passes, and when pushed forward to a river terminal point, opening up the fertile Logan Valley and the country further north, it must become both a profitable and an important line.

     Among the original stock-holders and projectors of the O. & N. W. road, was James. E. Boyd, its first President; William A. Paxton, John A. Morrow, John I. Redick, Herman Kountze, Edward Creighton, Jonas Gise, John A. Horbach, O. H. Downs, Frank Smith, G. M. Mills, and Joseph and Ezra Millard.

In connection with the Union Pacific, and the Chicago & Northwestern roads, forms a direct and short transportation route from Fremont, Neb., to Chicago; also in connection with the Iowa Division of the Illinois Central, Sioux City & St. Paul lines, it affords a direct route to St. Paul, Duluth and Milwaukee. The Sioux City & Pacific road runs from Sioux City along the east bank of the Missouri River to a point about two miles west of Missouri Valley Junction, Iowa, where it connects with the Chicago & Northwestern, over which Council Bluffs and the entire system of railways radiating from that point and Omaha are reached. Leaving the 0. & N. W. road it bends to the west, crossing the Missouri River by a steam ferry, about three miles east of the city of Blair, where it crosses the Omaha & Northwestern road. From Blair it bends a little to the southwest until Fremont, a thriving little city situated on the east bank of the Platte River, on the Union Pacific, is reached. There, connections are made with the Elkhorn Valley road, which runs up the Elkhorn Valley to Stanton, the County Seat of Stanton County.

     From Fremont to points east and north, the Sioux City & Pacific has the advantage of being the quickest and most direct route, and to St. Paul and other northern points, it is the most popular route.

Operated by the Sioux City & Pacific, extends from Fremont on the Union Pacific, to Stanton, the County Seat of Stanton County, which latter point it reached in 1879. The first ten miles of the road was completed by December 31st, 1869.

     This line follows the Elkhorn Valley northward, through one of the loveliest, richest and fast-settling regions of the State, and has a profitable and rapidly increasing traffic.

     There are several prosperous and growing towns along the line, the principal of which are Fremont, West Point, Scribner, Hooper and Stanton. The extension of this road through Madison and Antelope Counties is now progressing.

     Is a link of the important transportation route from Omaha to St. Louis, via Lincoln. One hundred and ten miles of its line is in Nebraska, passing in a southeasterly direction from Lincoln, through the rich grain growing Counties of Lancaster, Gage, Johnson, Pawnee and Richardson. The extension of the Atchison & Nebraska road from Lincoln to Columbus, where a junction is formed with the Union Pacific, was commenced in 1879. As a transportation route for produce to St. Louis, this line has advantages that no amount of competition can wrest from it. This company was organized in 1870, and the line completed from Atchison to Lincoln, a distance of 148 miles, in 1872. The equipment of the road includes ten locomotives, six passenger cars, three mail and express cars, ninety-five box cars, fifty-five flat, sixteen stock, and fifty-five combination cars.

     The Nebraska connections of the A. & N. are the Burlington & Missouri River, Omaha & Southwestern, and Nebraska Railways, at Lincoln, and the Union Pacific, at Columbus.

     Was built in 1876-7, and is twenty-six miles in length, extending from Covington on the Missouri River opposite from Sioux City to Ponca, the County Seat of Dixon County. This line traverses a rich and rapidly developing section of the State, and is well patronized and profitable, and when extended further west, as it eventually will be, it will prove a most important avenue for commerce

and travel, in that portion of the State. The principal towns along the line of the road are Covington, Dakota City, Jackson, Summit and Ponca; and at Sioux City connections are made with the Dakota Southern, Sioux City & St. Paul, Illinois Central, and Sioux City & Pacific roads.

     There are a large number of projected railway lines in different parts of the State, and under the present era in railway building it is more than probable that before another five years have passed that Nebraska will have a net work of rail lines equal to that of Illinois or Indiana.