The Great Northern Railway (reporting mark GN) was an American Class I railroad. Running from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, it was the creation of 19th-century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill and was developed from the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad.

Great Northern was the first northern transcontinental system to inaugurate this streamliner service and the first among these lines to offer passenger service on a 45-hour schedule between Chicago on the east, and Seattle and Portland on the west.

Jan 19, 2024 · The Great Northern Railway was the only "transcontinental" service built with almost no land grants from the federal government, and one of the few that did not go into receivership in the Panic of 1893. Its transcontinental route primarily from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington was north of the Northern Pacific route.

The Great Northern Railway was a transcontinental railroad system that extended from St. Paul to Seattle. On September 18, 1889, James J. Hill created the Great Northern Railway from the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific, and the Minneapolis and St. Cloud.

Discover the story of the Great Northern Railway, the only privately funded transcontinental railroad in American history. Learn how it helped to settle the remotest regions of the American Northwest.

The first northern transcontinental, the Northern Pacific (NP), was completed in 1883. Its western terminus was Tacoma, WA. Other railroads and connections followed later. The Great Northern Railway (1893) and the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Puget Sound Railway (1909) also completed transcontinentals.

On June 18, 1893, the first Great Northern Railway passenger train leaves Seattle for St. Paul, Minnesota. The departure marks the beginning of direct transcontinental rail travel from Seattle, fulfilling a goal that boosters and civic leaders have dreamed of for decades.

Running from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, it was the creation of 19th-century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill and was developed from the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Great Northern's route was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the U.S.

Oct 12, 2024 · What became the Great Northern Railway (GN) was the work of a singe individual, James Jerome Hill. The legendary " Empire Builder " pieced together one of America's great transportation companies over the span of nearly four decades.

Dec 5, 2017 · Train length and tonnage increases led Great Northern to return to General Electric for two more electric locomotives, delivered in 1947. These monsters became the railway’s largest locomotives, rated at 5,000 horsepower each.