1.
Ulysses S. Grant
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Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States. As Commanding General, Grant worked closely with President Abraham Lincoln to lead the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy in the American Civil War and he implemented Congressional Reconstruction, often at odds with President Andrew Johnson. His presidency has often criticized for tolerating corruption and for the severe economic depression in his second term. Grant graduated in 1843 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, after the war he married Julia Boggs Dent in 1848, their marriage producing four children. Grant initially retired from the Army in 1854 and he struggled financially in civilian life. When the Civil War began in 1861, he rejoined the U. S. Army, in 1862, Grant took control of Kentucky and most of Tennessee, and led Union forces to victory in the Battle of Shiloh, earning a reputation as an aggressive commander. He incorporated displaced African American slaves into the Union war effort, in July 1863, after a series of coordinated battles, Grant defeated Confederate armies and seized Vicksburg, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and dividing the Confederacy in two. After his victories in the Chattanooga Campaign, Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of bloody battles, trapping Lees army in their defense of Richmond. Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns in other theaters, as well, in April 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, effectively ending the war. Historians have hailed Grants military genius, and his strategies are featured in history textbooks. After the Civil War, Grant led the armys supervision of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states and he also used the army to build the Republican Party in the South. After the disenfranchisement of some former Confederates, Republicans gained majorities, in his second term, the Republican coalitions in the South splintered and were defeated one by one as redeemers regained control using coercion and violence. In May 1875, Grant authorized his Secretary of Treasury Benjamin Bristow to shut down and his peace policy with the Indians initially reduced frontier violence, but is best known for the Great Sioux War of 1876. Grant responded to charges of corruption in executive offices more than any other 19th Century president and he appointed the first Civil Service Commission and signed legislation ending the corrupt moiety system. In foreign policy, Grant sought to trade and influence while remaining at peace with the world. His administration successfully resolved the Alabama claims by the Treaty of Washington with Great Britain, Grant avoided war with Spain over the Virginius Affair, but Congress rejected his attempted annexation of the Dominican Republic. His administration implemented a standard and sought to strengthen the dollar. Grant left office in 1877 and embarked on a two-year diplomatic world tour that captured the nations attention, in 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican presidential nomination for a third term
2.
Cold Spring, New York
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Cold Spring is a village in the town of Philipstown in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 1,983 at the 2010 census and it borders the smaller village of Nelsonville and Garrison. The town is the birthplace of General Gouverneur K. Warren, the village, located in the Hudson Highlands, sits at the deepest point of the Hudson River, directly across from West Point. Cold Spring serves as a getaway for many residents of New York City. Commuter service to New York City is available via the Cold Spring train station, the train journey is about an hour and ten minutes to Grand Central Terminal. The site of present-day Cold Spring was part of the lands belonging to Adolphus Philipse, the first settler of Cold Spring was Thomas Davenport in 1730. In 1772 a highway master was chosen for the road from Cold Spring to the Post Road from New York to Albany, a small trading hamlet grew alongside the river by the early 1800s. A couple of sloops made regular trips from Cold Spring to New York, carrying wood and some country produce. Those trips by sloop usually took a week, in 1818 Gouverneur Kemble established the West Point Foundry opposite West Point to produce artillery pieces for the United States Government. The nearbys mountains contained veins of ore, and were covered with timber for fuel, a brook provided hydropower, and the Hudson a ready shipping outlet. In 1843, the Foundry built the USS Spencer, the first iron ship built in the U. S, with the influx of workers at the Foundry, local housing, businesses and churches increased, and Cold Spring was incorporated as a village in 1846. The first President of the Village was Joshua Haight, the Foundry became famous for its production of Parrott rifles and other munitions during the Civil War, when the foundry grew to a sprawling 100-acre complex employing 1,400. It also manufactured cast iron steam engines for locomotives, gears, the rise of steel making and the declining demand for cast iron after the Civil War caused the Foundry to cease operations in 1911. Many artifacts from the Foundrys history can be viewed at the Putnam History Museum on Chestnut Street, built in 1830, the building was originally a one-room schoolhouse for the Foundrys teenage apprentices and the children of employees. On January 22,1896, local businessmen of Cold Spring formed a brigade known as the Cold Spring Hose Company. A horse-drawn hook and ladder was donated in 1899, the Municipal Building, designed by Louis Mekeel, was constructed in 1926 to house the companys first firetruck, an American LaFrance. The company, renamed Cold Spring Fire Company No.1 in 1900, serves the Villages of Cold Spring, Nelsonville and a district in the Town of Philipstown. Mr. Willis Buckner, a slave from the South, was a driver and groom for Susan
3.
Prescott, Arizona
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Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city is 39,843, the city is the county seat of Yavapai County. In 1864 Prescott was designated as the capital of the Arizona Territory, the Territorial Capital was moved to Tucson in 1867. Prescott again became the Territorial Capital in 1877, until Phoenix became the capital in 1889. The towns of Prescott Valley,7 miles east, Chino Valley,16 miles north, Dewey-Humboldt,13 miles east and this also sometimes refers to central Yavapai County in general, which would include the towns of, Mayer, Paulden, Wilhoit, and Williamson Valley. Combined with these communities the area had a population of 103,260 as of 2007. Prescott is the center of the Prescott Metropolitan Area, defined by the U. S. Census Bureau as all of Yavapai County, the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe reservation is located adjacent to and partially within the borders of Prescott. Arizona Territorial Governor John Noble Goodwin selected the site of Prescott following his first tour of the new territory. Goodwin replaced Governor John A. Gurley, appointed by Abraham Lincoln, downtown streets in Prescott are named in honor of each of them. Goodwin selected a site 20 miles south of the capital on the east side of Granite Creek near a number of mining camps. The territorial capital was moved to the new site along with Fort Whipple. Robert W. Groom surveyed the new community, and an initial auction sold 73 lots on June 4,1864, by July 4,1864, a total of 232 lots had been sold within the new community. Prescott was officially incorporated in 1880, Prescott served as capital of Arizona Territory until November 1,1867, when the capital was moved to Tucson by act of the 4th Arizona Territorial Legislature. The capital was returned to Prescott in 1877 by the 9th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the capital was finally moved to Phoenix on February 4,1889, by the 15th Arizona Territorial Legislature. The Sharlot Hall Museum houses much of Prescotts territorial history, Whiskey Row in downtown Prescott boasts many historic buildings, including The Palace, Arizonas oldest restaurant and bar is still the oldest frontier saloon in Arizona. Many other buildings that have converted to boutiques, art galleries, bookstores. Prescott is home to the Arizona Pioneers Home and Hospital for Disabled Miners, the Home opened during territorial days, February 1,1911. The city was named after author William H. Prescott, whose writings were popular during the Civil War
4.
Wisconsin
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Wisconsin is a U. S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, the state is divided into 72 counties. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline, Wisconsin is known as Americas Dairyland because it is one of the nations leading dairy producers, particularly famous for its cheese. Manufacturing, especially paper products, information technology, and tourism are major contributors to the states economy. The word Wisconsin originates from the given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian-speaking Native American groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River, arriving in 1673, subsequent French writers changed the spelling from Meskousing to Ouisconsin, and over time this became the name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling from Ouisconsin to Wisconsin when they began to arrive in numbers during the early 19th century. The legislature of Wisconsin Territory made the current spelling official in 1845, the Algonquin word for Wisconsin and its original meaning have both grown obscure. Interpretations vary, but most implicate the river and the red sandstone that lines its banks, other theories include claims that the name originated from one of a variety of Ojibwa words meaning red stone place, where the waters gather, or great rock. Wisconsin has been home to a variety of cultures over the past 12,000 years. The first people arrived around 10,000 BCE during the Wisconsin Glaciation and these early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, hunted now-extinct ice age animals such as the Boaz mastodon, a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed along with spear points in southwest Wisconsin. After the ice age ended around 8000 BCE, people in the subsequent Archaic period lived by hunting, fishing, agricultural societies emerged gradually over the Woodland period between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Toward the end of period, Wisconsin was the heartland of the Effigy Mound culture. Later, between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Mississippian and Oneota cultures built substantial settlements including the village at Aztalan in southeast Wisconsin. The Oneota may be the ancestors of the modern Ioway and Ho-Chunk tribes who shared the Wisconsin region with the Menominee at the time of European contact, the first European to visit what became Wisconsin was probably the French explorer Jean Nicolet. He canoed west from Georgian Bay through the Great Lakes in 1634, pierre Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers visited Green Bay again in 1654–1666 and Chequamegon Bay in 1659–1660, where they traded for fur with local Native Americans. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet became the first to record a journey on the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway all the way to the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien
5.
Putnam County, New York
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Putnam County is a county located in the U. S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 99,710, Putnam County formed in 1812 from Dutchess County and is named for Israel Putnam, a hero in the French and Indian War and a general in the American Revolutionary War. Putnam County is included in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area and it is located in the lower Hudson River Valley. Midtown Manhattan is around a one-hour drive, and Grand Central Terminal is approximately 1 hour,20 minute train ride from the county, in 1609, a Native American people called the Wappinger inhabited the east bank of the Hudson River. They farmed, hunted, and fished throughout their range, often encountering Dutch traders, from whom they obtained goods such as alcohol and firearms. The colonial Province of New York and the Connecticut Colony negotiated an agreement on November 28,1683, establishing their border as 20 miles east of the Hudson River, Dutchess county was then established as one of New Yorks twelve counties. It included all of todays Putnam County and two towns in the present Columbia county, until 1713, Dutchess was administered by Ulster county. In 1691, a group of Dutch traders purchased a tract of land from the Wappingers spanning from Hudson to the Connecticut border. Six years later sold it to wealthy Dutch-American merchant Adolphus Philipse. After Adolph Philipses death, the Patent was divided in 1754 into nine lots granted to three heirs, Mary Philipse, Philip Philipse, and Susannah Philipse Robinson, during the French and Indian War, many of the Wappingers went to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Putnam was slow to be settled compared to parts of the Hudson Valley. Firstly, it was owned and settlement was limited to tenent farmers willing to pay a portion of their earnings to Phillipse. Secondly, it was hilly and rocky and unattractive to farmers looking for tillable cropland. An early settler was the Hayt family, which built a farm called The Elm in 1720, jacob Haviland settled in the Oblong in 1731 in what became known as Haviland Hollow. The first village in the county was Fredericksburg, now the hamlet of Patterson, during the Revolution, the Philipses stayed loyal to the Crown and were stripped of their lands. The Philipse Patent was sold along with the rest of their holdings, the dispute over The Oblong was resolved in the aftermath of the war, with the heavily settled tract being incorporated as the first of two versions of the Town of Southeast. Also resolved was The Gore, an area near Fishkill Creek above the Hudson Highlands along the northern border of the Phillipse patent. Being geographically similar to the Livingston and Beekman patents it abutted, Putnam was also able to function as a separate county because of the easy transportation provided by the Hudson River
6.
Wayne County, New York
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Wayne County is a county in the U. S. state of New York. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 93,772, the name honors General Anthony Wayne, an American Revolutionary War hero and American statesman. Wayne County is less than 50 miles west of, and is in the same Congressional District as and its location during the early westward expansion of the United States, on an international border and in a fertile farming region, has contributed to a rich cultural and economic history. Two world religions sprung from within its borders, and its inhabitants played important roles in abolitionism in the leading up to the American Civil War. Wayne County ranks as New Yorks top apple producing county, prior to the arrival of Europeans, the land Wayne County encompasses was originally part of the Iroquois Confederacy, which had existed from around August 31,1142. When counties were established in New York State on November 1,1683 and this was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York State and all of the present State of Vermont, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. On April 11,1823, Wayne County was formed by combining portions of Seneca, the first settlers of European extraction came to the region located along the Ganargua River, just west of present-day Palmyra. In 1788 the area part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. Sir William Pulteney, a British baronet and English land speculator, along with his partners in the Pulteney Association, purchased a 1,000,000 acres of the former Phelps and Gorham Purchase in 1790. The first westward road was one coming from near Utica to Geneva and this highway left the future Wayne County region somewhat isolated and settlers desiring to locate there came by way of streams and lakes lying to the north of the road. It was only a few years after that the new road came west, passing through the county, the first permanent settlement was started by John Swift and Col. John Jenkins in March 1789, about two miles from Palmyra. In 1792, he in turn sold approximately 1,200,000 acres to The Pulteney Association owned by Sir William Pulteney, after Pulteneys death in 1805 the land was known as the Pulteney Estate. Sir William Pulteney selected Charles Williamson as land agent to develop the purchased 1,200,000 acres. Williamson selected Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario as the point for a commercial center, with the idea that the lake. In 1794 he had built from Palmyra to Phelpstown. Sodus was surveyed by Joseph Colt in lots of an acre, a hotel was built. Sodus quickly passed from having a future to the head of the towns of the region. Two small skirmishes were fought in the county during the War of 1812, one in Sodus in June 1813, in May 1814, British troops under the command of Sir James Yeo landed in the Williamson hamlet of Pultneyville
7.
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
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Oshkosh is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, United States, located where the Fox River enters Lake Winnebago from the west. The population was 66,083 at the 2010 census, the city is located adjacent to and partially within the Town of Oshkosh. Oshkosh was named for Menominee Chief Oshkosh, whose name meant claw, although the fur trade brought the first European settlers to the area as early as 1818, it never became a major player in the fur trade. It was the establishment and growth of the industry in the area that spurred development of Oshkosh. Oshkosh was incorporated as a city in 1853, although it had already designated the county seat. The lumber industry became established as businessmen took advantage of navigable waterways to provide access to both markets and northern pineries. The 1859 arrival of rail transportation expanded the ability to meet the demands of a rapidly growing construction market, at one time, Oshkosh was known as the Sawdust Capital of the World due to the number of lumber mills in the city,11 by 1860. By 1874, there were 47 sawmills and 15 shingle mills, by 1870, Oshkosh had become the third-largest city in Wisconsin with a population of over 12,000. The Oshkosh Daily Northwestern newspaper was founded around this time, as was the Oshkosh State Normal School, on April 28,1875, Oshkosh had a Great Fire that consumed homes and businesses along Main Street north of the Fox River. The fire had engulfed 70 stores,40 factories, and 500 homes costing nearly $2.5 million in damage, around 1900 Oshkosh was home of the Oshkosh Brewing Company, which coined the marketing slogan By Gosh Its Good. Its Chief Oshkosh became a nationally distributed beer, the Oshkosh All-Stars played in the National Basketball League from 1937-49 before the NBL and the Basketball Association of America merged to become the NBA. Oshkosh reached the NBLs championship finals five times, the city has a total of 33 listings on the National Register of Historic Places. The lumber industry made the fortunes of area entrepreneurs and businessmen, availability of materials and capital, along with devastating downtown fires in the mid-1870s, created a range of well-designed buildings for residential, commercial, civic and religious use. The many structures which make up the historic areas are largely a result of the capital and materials generated by the lumber. Oshkosh had six districts as of October 2011. The city had 27 historic buildings as of October 2011, Oshkosh is located at 44°1′29″N 88°33′4″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 26.61 square miles. Oshkosh has a continental climate according to the Köppen climate classification system
8.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
9.
Madison, Wisconsin
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Madison is the capital of the U. S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. As of July 1,2015, Madisons estimated population of 248,951 made it the second largest city in Wisconsin, after Milwaukee, and the 84th largest in the United States. The city forms the core of the United States Census Bureaus Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Dane County and neighboring Iowa, Green, the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Areas 2010 population was 568,593. When the Wisconsin Territory was created in 1836 the territorial legislature convened in Belmont, One of the legislatures tasks was to select a permanent location for the territorys capital. Doty lobbied aggressively for Madison as the new capital, offering buffalo robes to the freezing legislators and he had James Slaughter plat two cities in the area, Madison and The City of Four Lakes, near present-day Middleton. Doty named the city Madison for James Madison, the fourth President of the U. S. who had died on June 28,1836 and he named the streets for the other 39 signers of the U. S. Constitution. Being named for the founding father James Madison, who had just died. The cornerstone for the Wisconsin capitol was laid in 1837, on October 9,1839, Kintzing Prichett registered the plat of Madison at the registrars office of the then-territorial Dane County. Madison was incorporated as a village in 1846, with a population of 626, when Wisconsin became a state in 1848, Madison remained the capital, and the following year it became the site of the University of Wisconsin. The Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad connected to Madison in 1854, Madison incorporated as a city in 1856, with a population of 6,863, leaving the unincorporated remainder as a separate Town of Madison. The original capitol was replaced in 1863 and the capitol burned in 1904. The current capitol was built between 1906 and 1917, during the Civil War, Madison served as a center of the Union Army in Wisconsin. Camp Randall, on the west side of Madison, was built and used as a camp, a military hospital. After the war ended, the Camp Randall site was absorbed into the University of Wisconsin, in 2004 the last vestige of active military training on the site was removed when the stadium renovation replaced a firing range used for ROTC training. The City of Madison continued annexations from the Town of Madison almost from the date of the citys incorporation, Madison is located in the center of Dane County in south-central Wisconsin,77 miles west of Milwaukee and 122 miles northwest of Chicago. The city completely surrounds the smaller Town of Madison, the City of Monona, Madison shares borders with its largest suburb, Sun Prairie, and three other suburbs, Middleton, McFarland and Fitchburg. The citys boundaries also approach the city of Verona, and the villages of Cottage Grove, DeForest, and Waunakee. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 94.03 square miles
10.
Bribery
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Bribery is the act of giving money, goods or other forms of recompense to a recipient in exchange for an alteration of their behavior that the recipient would otherwise not alter. Gifts of money or other items of value which are available to everyone on an equivalent basis. Offering a discount or a refund to all purchasers is a rebate and is not bribery. Giving the rebate to influence them to look favorably on the utilitys rate increase applications, however. The bribe is the gift bestowed to influence the recipients conduct, in economics, the bribe has been described as rent. Bribery in bureaucracy has been viewed as a reason for the higher cost of production of goods, one must be careful of differing social and cultural norms when examining bribery. Expectations of when a transaction is appropriate can differ from place to place. Tipping, for example, is considered bribery in some societies, in some Spanish-speaking countries, bribes are referred to as mordida. In Arab countries, bribes may be called baksheesh or shay, french-speaking countries often use the expressions dessous-de-table, pot-de-vin, or commission occulte. While the last two expressions contain inherently a negative connotation, the expression dessous-de-table can be understood as a commonly accepted business practice. In German, the term is Schmiergeld. The forms that bribery take are numerous, for example, a motorist might bribe a police officer not to issue a ticket for speeding, a citizen seeking paperwork or utility line connections might bribe a functionary for faster service. Bribery may also take the form of a commission, a profit made by an agent, in the course of his employment. Euphemisms abound for this Bribers and recipients of bribery are likewise numerous although bribers have one common denominator, Bribery around the world is estimated at about $1 trillion. The reason for this dissociation is to make the steps of a corrupt deal already an offence and, thus. Besides, such a dissociation makes the prosecution of bribery offences easier since it can be difficult to prove that two parties have formally agreed upon a corrupt deal. A grey area may exist when payments to smooth transactions are made, in some countries, this practice is the norm, often resulting from a developing nation not having the tax structure to pay civil servants an adequate salary. Nevertheless, most economists regard bribery as a bad thing because it encourages rent seeking behaviour, a state where bribery has become a way of life is a kleptocracy
11.
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
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The eastern half of the system merged into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1,1986. The company went through several names and faced bankruptcy several times in that period. The company incorporated in 1847, but changed its name to the Milwaukee and its first line, all of 5 miles, opened between Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, on November 20,1850. Extensions followed to Waukesha in February 1851, Madison, and finally the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien in 1857. As a result of the panic of 1857, the M&M went into receivership in 1859. In 1867, Alexander Mitchell combined the M&PdC with the Milwaukee and St. Paul under the name Milwaukee, critical to the development and financing of the railroad was the acquisition of significant land grants. Prominent individual investors in the line included Alexander Mitchell, Russell Sage, Jeremiah Milbank, in 1874, the name was changed to Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul. By 1887, the railroad had lines running through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, the company General Offices were later located in Chicagos Railway Exchange building until 1924, at which time they moved to Chicago Union Station. In the 1890s the Milwaukees directors felt they had to extend the railroad to the Pacific in order to remain competitive with other roads, a survey in 1901 estimated costs to build to the Pacific Northwest as $45 million. In 1905 the board approved the Pacific Extension, now estimated at $60 million, the contract for the western part of the route was awarded to Horace Chapin Henry of Seattle. Construction began in 1906 and was completed in 1909, the two main mountain ranges that had to be crossed required major civil engineering works and additional locomotive power. The completion of 2,300 miles of railroad through some of the most varied topography in the nation in three years was a major feat. Some historians question the choice of route, since it bypassed some population centers, much of the line paralleled the Northern Pacific Railway. It was primarily a long-haul route, Trains magazine called the building of the extension egregious and a disaster. George H. Drury listed the Pacific Extension as one of several decisions made by the Milwaukees management which contributed to the companys eventual failure. Operating conditions in the regions of the Pacific Extension proved difficult. In winter, temperatures dropped to −40 °F, making it challenging for steam locomotives to generate sufficient steam, the line snaked through mountainous areas, resulting in long steep grades and sharp curves. Electrification provided an answer, especially with abundant hydroelectric power in the mountains, between 1914–1916, the Milwaukee implemented a 3,000 volt direct current overhead system between Harlowton, Montana and Avery, Idaho, a distance of 438 miles
