Great Northern Railway Co.

Great Northern Railway Co.

U.S. railroad founded by James J. Hill in 1890. Hill bought a Minnesota railroad, the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, in 1878, and extended it north to the Canadian border and west to the Pacific coast, encouraging thousands of homesteaders to settle along its tracks. Together with J. P. Morgan of the Northern Pacific Railway Co., Hill bought control of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in 1901 and set up a holding company to control the three railroads. In 1904 the U.S. Supreme Court declared the company in violation of antitrust laws and ordered it dissolved, but the Burlington continued under control of the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific. In 1970 the three were merged under the name Burlington Northern, Inc.