Page "James J. Hill" Paragraph 12

" What we want ," Hill is quoted as saying, " is the best possible line, shortest distance, lowest grades, and least curvature we can build.

We do not care enough for Rocky Mountains scenery to spend a large sum of money developing it.

" Hill got what he wanted, and in January 1893 his Great Northern Railway, running from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington — a distance of more than — was completed.

The Great Northern was the first transcontinental built without public money and just a few land grants and was one of the few transcontinental railroads not to go bankrupt.