1.
Union Pacific Railroad
–
The Union Pacific Railroad is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Union Pacific Railroad network is the largest in the United States and it is also one of the worlds largest transportation companies. Union Pacific Railroad is the operating company of Union Pacific Corporation. Union Pacific Corporations main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the second largest freight railroad. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all freight rail lines in the U. S. The original company was incorporated on July 1,1862, under an act of Congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln, and it provided for the construction of railroads from the Missouri River to the Pacific as a war measure for the preservation of the Union. It was constructed westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa to meet the Central Pacific Railroad line, the line was constructed primarily by Irish labor who had learned their craft during the recent Civil War. The two lines were joined together at Promontory Summit, Utah,53 miles west of Ogden on May 10,1869, hence creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America. Under the guidance of its dominant stockholder Dr. Thomas Clark Durant, the namesake of the city of Durant, Iowa, the first rails were laid in Omaha. It built or purchased local lines that gave it access to Denver, Colorado, to Portland, Oregon and it also owned narrow gauge trackage into the heart of the Colorado Rockies and a standard gauge line south from Denver across New Mexico into Texas. UP was entangled in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, exposed in 1872 and its independent construction company the Crédit Mobilier had bribed congressmen. The UP itself was not guilty but it did get bad publicity, the financial crisis of 1873 led to financial troubles but not bankruptcy. The company was reorganized as the Union Pacific Railway on January 24,1880, the new company declared bankruptcy during the Panic of 1893. When it emerged in 1897 it reverted to the original name, the corporate headquarters of the Union Pacific Corporation were located in New York City from its initial founding in the 1860s until Drew Lewis became CEO in the mid-1980s. He relocated it to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, later the headquarters was shifted to Dallas, Texas, before relocating to Omaha to join the operating headquarters. From the ICC annual reports, except 1979 is from Moodys, on December 31,1925 UP-OSL-OWRN-LA&SL-StJ&GI operated 9,834 route-miles and 15,265 track-miles. At the end of 1980, Union Pacific operated 9,266 route-miles and 15,647 miles of track, Moodys shows 220,697 million revenue ton-miles in 1993 on the expanded system
2.
Amtrak
–
Founded in 1971 to take over most of the remaining U. S. passenger rail services, it is partially government funded yet operated and managed as a for-profit corporation. Amtrak serves more than 500 destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces, operating more than 300 trains each day over 21,300 miles of track, some track sections allow trains to run as fast as 150 mph. In fiscal year 2015, Amtrak served 30.8 million passengers and had $2.185 billion in revenue, nearly two-thirds of passengers come from the 10 largest metropolitan areas, 83% of passengers travel on routes shorter than 400 miles. Its headquarters is at Union Station in Washington, D. C, the name Amtrak is a portmanteau of the words America and trak, the latter itself a sensational spelling of track. From the mid-19th century until about 1920, nearly all intercity travelers in the United States moved by rail, historically, U. S. passenger trains were owned and operated by the same privately owned companies that operated freight trains. About 65,000 railroad passenger cars operated in 1929, from 1920 into the later 20th century, passenger rails popularity diminished and there was a series of pullbacks and tentative recoveries. Rail passenger revenues declined dramatically between 1920 and 1934 because of the rise of the automobile, in the same period, many travelers were lost to interstate bus companies such as Greyhound Lines. However, in the mid-1930s, railroads reignited popular imagination with service improvements and new, diesel-powered streamliners, such as the gleaming silver Pioneer Zephyr and Flying Yankee. Even with the improvements, on a basis, traffic continued to decline. World War II broke the malaise, passenger traffic soared sixfold thanks to troop movements, in 1946, there remained 45 percent fewer passenger trains than in 1929, and the decline quickened despite railroad optimism. Passengers disappeared and so did trains, few trains generated profits, most produced losses. Broad-based passenger rail deficits appeared as early as 1948, and by the mid-1950s, by 1965, only 10,000 rail passenger cars were in operation,85 percent fewer than in 1929. Passenger service was provided on only 75,000 miles of track, the 1960s also saw the end of railway post office revenues, which had helped some of the remaining trains break even. The causes of the decline of rail in the United States were complex. Until 1920, rail was the practical form of intercity transport. By 1930, the companies had constructed, with private funding. In 1916, the amount of track in the United States peaked at 254,251 miles, some rail routes had been built primarily to facilitate the sale of stock in the railroad companies, they were redundant from the beginning. These were the first to be abandoned as the financial positions deteriorated
3.
Salt Lake City
–
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and the most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Utah. With an estimated population of 190,884 in 2014, the city lies at the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo Combined Statistical Area. This region is a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along an approximately 120-mile segment of the Wasatch Front and it is one of only two major urban areas in the Great Basin. The city was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young, Isaac Morley, George Washington Bradley and numerous other Mormon followers, who extensively irrigated and cultivated the arid valley. Due to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, the city was originally named Great Salt Lake City—the word great was dropped from the name in 1868 by the 17th Utah Territorial Legislature. Today, however, less than half the population of Salt Lake City proper are members of the LDS Church. It was traversed by the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway, in 1913, Salt Lake City has since developed a strong outdoor recreation tourist industry based primarily on skiing, and hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. It is the banking center of the United States. Before Mormon settlement, the Shoshone, Ute, and Paiute had dwelt in the Salt Lake Valley for thousands of years. The land was treated by the United States as public domain, the first U. S. explorer in the Salt Lake area is believed to be Jim Bridger in 1825, although others had been in Utah earlier, some as far north as the nearby Utah Valley. Frémont surveyed the Great Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Valley in 1843 and 1845, the Donner Party, a group of ill-fated pioneers, had traveled through the Great Salt Lake Valley in August 1846. The first permanent settlements in the date to the arrival of the Latter-day Saints on July 24,1847. Upon arrival at the Salt Lake Valley, president of the church Brigham Young is recorded as stating, This is the right place, Brigham Young claimed to have seen the area in a vision prior to the wagon trains arrival. They found the broad valley empty of any human settlement, four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young designated the building site for the Salt Lake Temple, which would eventually become a famous Mormon and Salt Lake City landmark. The Salt Lake Temple, constructed on the block that would later be called Temple Square, construction started in 1853, and the temple was dedicated on 6 April 1893. The temple has become an icon for the city and serves as its centerpiece, in fact, the southeast corner of Temple Square is the initial point of reference for the Salt Lake Meridian, and for all addresses in the Salt Lake Valley. The Mormon pioneers organized a new state called Deseret and petitioned for its recognition in 1849, the United States Congress rebuffed the settlers in 1850 and established the Utah Territory, vastly reducing its size, and designated Fillmore as its capital city. Great Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the capital in 1858
4.
California Zephyr
–
The California Zephyr is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago, Illinois, and Emeryville, California, via Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California. At 2,438 miles it is Amtraks longest route after the Texas Eagle, Amtrak claims the route as one of its most scenic, with views of the upper Colorado River valley in the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada. It was scheduled to pass through the most spectacular scenery on its route in the daylight. Since 1983 the California Zephyr name has applied to the Amtrak service, which operates daily and is a hybrid of the route of the original Zephyr and its former rival. During fiscal year 2012, the California Zephyr carried more than 376,000 passengers, the train had a total revenue of $47,605,728 in 2012, a 6. 4% increase on 2011. Cars owned by different railroads ran together, cars cycled in and out for service, repairs, and varying passenger loads with the seasons. The first train was named in San Francisco by Eleanor Parker while California Lieutenant Governor Goodwin Knight, mayor of San Francisco Elmer Robinson, for the inaugural run in 1949, every woman on the train was given silver and orange orchids flown from Hilo, Hawaii. The car hostesses were known as Zephyrettes, in summer 1954 the schedule for 2,532 miles Chicago to San Francisco was 50hr 50min. An eastbound California Zephyr through Ruby Canyon saw the trains first birth on March 1,1955, the California Zephyr was not immune to falling passenger travel in the 1960s, moreover, it began to lose money even when sold out. The Western Pacific applied to discontinue its portion in 1966 but the Interstate Commerce Commission refused after public outcry. The D&RGW made the same request in 1969 and in 1970 the ICC permitted Western Pacific to end its portion, provided the D&RGW, the last westbound California Zephyr to the west coast left Chicago on March 22,1970 and arrived in Oakland two days later. The California Zephyr had operated for 21 years and 2 days, east of Salt Lake City the train was reduced to a tri-weekly schedule, operating as California Service on the Burlington and as the Rio Grande Zephyr on the Rio Grande. The Rio Grande portion of the train was extended beyond Salt Lake to Ogden, Utah, allowing Nevada and this continued until the creation of Amtrak on May 1,1971. After debuting on the Denver Zephyr in 1936, they served on the California Zephyr from 1949 until it was discontinued in 1970, at any one time, there were 10 or 11 Zephyrettes who were actively employed. When Amtrak revived the California Zephyr in 1983 it invited a former Zephyrette, Beulah Bauman, a pair of the Western Pacifics Budd Rail Diesel Cars, replacements for the Royal Gorge, also picked up the name Zephyrette. At the last minute, the Rio Grande refused to join Amtrak and this forced Amtrak on to the Union Pacifics Overland Route through southern Wyoming instead of Colorado. The Rio Grande continued to operate the Rio Grande Zephyr between Denver and Ogden, in 1983 the D&RGW elected to join Amtrak, citing increasing losses in passenger operations. Amtrak re-routed the San Francisco Zephyr over the D&RGWs Moffat Subdivision between Denver and Salt Lake City, its preference from 1971
5.
Chicago Union Station
–
Chicago Union Station is a major railroad station that opened in 1925 in Chicago, Illinois, replacing an earlier station built in 1881. It is the only remaining intercity rail terminal in Chicago, as well as being the primary terminal for commuter trains. The station stands on the west side of the Chicago River between West Adams Street and West Jackson Boulevard, just outside the Chicago Loop, including approach and storage tracks, it is about nine and a half city blocks in size. Its facilities are underground, buried beneath streets and skyscrapers. Chicago Union Station is the third-busiest rail terminal in the United States, after Grand Central Terminal and it is Amtraks overall fourth-busiest station. It handles approximately 120,000 passengers on a weekday and is one of Chicago’s most iconic structures, reflecting the city’s strong architectural heritage. In addition to standing out architecturally, Union Station has features that reflect its commitment to sustainability, in 2011, its lighting system was replaced with more energy-efficient light bulbs and motion sensors, reducing the station’s carbon footprint by 4 million tons annually. Chicago Union Station was designated as one of America’s “Great Places” in 2012 by the American Planning Association. The “Great Places” program by APA highlights places streets, neighborhoods, and public spaces around America that exhibit “exemplary character, quality, and planning. ”These places are unique in their cultural and historical significance, sense of community, and vision. Other criteria include “architectural features, accessibility, functionality, and community involvement. ”Chicago Union Station is considered a “Great Public Space” by APA and these spaces are safe and inviting, well-maintained, and attractive, both visually and in functionality. In addition, local culture and history are reflected within the space, Union Station is laid out with a double stub-end configuration, with 10 tracks coming into the station from the north and 14 from the south. Because passenger trains do not pass through Union Station, all passengers traveling through Chicago must change trains to reach their final destination. There are 2 through tracks to allow out-of-service equipment moves between the north and south side, including one with a platform to allow extra long trains to board, between the north and south sides of the station is a passenger concourse. Passengers can walk through the concourse to get from any platform to any other without stairs or elevators, odd-numbered platforms are on the north half of the station, and even-numbered platforms on the south half. The north tracks are used by Amtrak for the Hiawatha Service and the Empire Builder, and by Metra for the Milwaukee District West, Milwaukee District North, the south tracks are used for all of the other Amtrak and Metra services. Two station management structures, one on side of the terminal, monitor train-to-track assignments. The concourse also has a level between platform and street level, containing a food court featuring local vendors as well as national chains. Located west of Canal Street, Union Stations headhouse occupies a city block
6.
Union Station (Ogden, Utah)
–
Union Station, also known as Ogden Union Station, is a train station in Ogden, Utah, at the west end of Historic 25th Street, just south of the Ogden Intermodal Transit Center. It was formerly the junction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads, the name Union Station was commonly given to train stations where tracks and facilities were shared by two or more railway companies. Although Union Station no longer serves as a hub, it is the heart of Ogden. Gifts at the Station sells gifts and a variety of related items, books, prints, jewelry. Gallery at the Station is a for sale exhibit that features local and regional artists every month, the Myra Powell Gallery features traveling exhibits and the Stations permanent art collection. Union Station Research Library has a collection of historic Ogden photographs. The last long-distance passenger trains to use Union Station were the final runs of Amtraks Pioneer through Ogden in May 1997, the adjacent Ogden Intermodal Transit Center currently serves the Utah Transit Authoritys FrontRunner commuter rail line. On March 8,1869, Union Pacific came to Ogden on its way to Promontory Summit to meet the Central Pacific, Promontory and Uintah lacked the necessary resources to house the Station. The first station was built in 1869 and it was a two-story wooden frame building built on a mud flat on the banks of the Weber River. The building soon became inadequate, being also the facility for the narrow gauge Utah Central Railroad, local newspapers complained about, among other things, the quarter mile of wood boardwalk required to traverse the swampy ground to reach the station. In response to these worries the Union Pacific and Central Pacific organized the jointly-owned Ogden Union Railway & Depot Co. to oversee the construction, a new structure, considerably larger than the old and constructed of brick, was built in 1889 and served the community for several decades. It was designed in the Romanesque Revival style, with a clock tower in the center. This building, in addition to serving the needs of the railroad, also contained 33 hotel rooms as well as a restaurant, barbershop, in 1923, a hotel room in the depot caught fire, which quickly spread throughout the building. The blaze was unable to be controlled, and the inside of the depot was destroyed, leaving the walls, the construction of the current building was completed in 1924 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style and is built on the foundation of the earlier building. It was dedicated on November 22 of that year, with a series of publicity shots being taken, the ceiling of the Grand Lobby, taking up the center portion of the building, has a height of 56 feet and extends to the roof. The trusses were originally painted in colors with geometric designs. Murals of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad were painted on the north and south end of the lobby, the second floors of the north and south wing were occupied by Southern Pacific, Ogden Union Railway & Depot Co. and Union Pacific Telegraph Department offices. Of special note are the two drinking fountains on either end of the Grand Lobby and these fountains, surrounded by colored mosaics, were the favorite resting spot of Ogden Union Railway & Depot Co
7.
Union Station (Los Angeles)
–
Los Angeles Union Station is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California, and the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States. It opened in May 1939 as the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, replacing La Grande Station, approved in a controversial ballot measure in 1926 and built in the 1930s, it served to consolidate rail services from a number of railroads into one terminal station. Conceived on a scale, Union Station became known as the Last of the Great Railway Stations built in the United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, today, the station is a major transportation hub for Southern California, serving almost 110,000 passengers a day. Three of Amtraks long distance trains originate and terminate here, the Coast Starlight to Seattle, the Southwest Chief and Texas Eagle to Chicago, the state-supported Amtrak California Pacific Surfliner regional trains run frequently to San Diego and also to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. The station is the hub of the Metrolink commuter trains, and several Metro Rail subway and light rail lines serve it as well, the Patsaouras Transit Plaza, on the east side of the station, serves dozens of bus lines operated by Metro and several other municipal carriers. The election would take on racial connotations and become a defining moment in the development of Los Angeles. The proposed Union Station was located in the heart of what was Los Angeles original Chinatown. ”The Times also attacked the elevateds for blocking out the California sun, two questions were put to vote in 1926. First, the voters approved Union Station instead of elevated railways by 61.3 to 38.7 percent margin. Second, the electorate voted in favor of the Los Angeles Plaza as the site of the new station but by a much smaller 51.1 to 48.9 percent margin. The glamorous new station took over from La Grande Station which had suffered damage in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and Central Station. Passenger service was provided by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Southern Pacific Railroad, the famed Super Chief luxury train carried Hollywood stars and others to Chicago and thence the East Coast. Union Station saw heavy use during World War II, but later saw declining patronage due to the popularity of air travel. No one was killed or injured, but the engineer lost his job, the station was designated as a Los Angeles Historic–Cultural Monument No.101 on August 2,1972 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The first commuter service to Union Station was the short-lived CalTrain that began operating on October 18,1982 between Los Angeles and Oxnard. The service faced economic and political problems from the start and was suspended in March 1983, the next attempt at commuter rail came in 1990 with the launch of the Amtrak-operated Orange County Commuter. The once-daily round-trip served stations between Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano, Metrolink commuter rail service began on October 26,1992, with Union Station as the terminus for the San Bernardino Line, the Santa Clarita Line and the Ventura County Line. In January 1993, Metros Red Line subway began service to the station, the Orange County Commuter train was discontinued on March 28,1994 and replaced by Metrolinks Orange County Line
8.
King Street Station
–
King Street Station is a train station in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located between South King and South Jackson streets and Second and Fourth Avenues South in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle, the station is just south of downtown. Built between 1904 and 1906, it served the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway from its opening on May 10,1906, until the creation. King Street Station was Seattles primary train terminal until the construction of the adjacent Oregon & Washington Depot, later named Union Station, King Street Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the Washington Heritage Register in 1973. King Street Station was purchased by the City of Seattle in 2008 for $10 and, with enough funds finally in place, the station is served by Amtrak Cascades, Empire Builder, and Coast Starlight trains, and by Sound Transits Sounder commuter trains. King St. Station is also the Seattle terminus for the Rocky Mountaineers luxury excursion train, for the first nine months of 2006, Sounder service boarded almost 1.2 million passengers at King Street Station. In 2016, Seattle was the 15th busiest station in the national Amtrak System, built between 1904 and 1906 by the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway, the station replaced an antiquated station on Railroad Avenue, todays Alaskan Way. Designed by the firm of Reed and Stem of St, the depots 242-foot tower was modeled after Campanile di San Marco in Venice, Italy, making it the tallest building in Seattle at the time of its construction. This tower contained four huge mechanical clock faces built by E. Howard & Co. of Boston, Massachusetts, at the time of installation it was said to be the second largest timepiece on the Pacific Coast, second only to the Ferry Building in San Francisco, California. Over the years, remodeling concealed the stations original ornate interior, after the remodel, the only original remaining features left visible in the main waiting area were the terrazzo tile floor and the clock on the west wall above the restrooms. From a practical standpoint, the station is close to downtown, however, unlike cities such as Boston, it is not near the intercity bus terminal, although the station is less than a block from the International District of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. For many years, the upper entrance off of Jackson Street was not used. Instead, the entrance was located on the first floor off of a small parking lot. Plans to restore the building to its former prominence, including cosmetic renovations to both the station interior and exterior, began in 2003. As part of renovations the Compass Room and restrooms were refurbished. New mahogany entry doors and wood framed windows were installed in the waiting room, new brass door hardware and reproduction period light fixtures and plaster decorative work were included to reproduce the former character of the stations interior. In November,2006, the Office of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced an agreement between the City of Seattle and BNSF Railway to purchase the station for $1. The Seattle City Council formalized the agreement by passing legislation in December,2006, the deal, revised to $10, was signed March 5,2008
9.
Pioneer (train)
–
The Pioneer was a passenger train run by Amtrak from Seattle, Washington to Chicago, Illinois via Portland, Oregon, Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah, Denver, Colorado, and other intermediate points. In the 1960s two Union Pacific Railroad streamliners provided service to Portland, Oregon via Boise, Idaho, the City of Portland and the Portland Rose. The City of Portland had a pedigree, the first streamlined train with sleeping cars. Amtrak did not retain either train in 1971, preferring the Empire Builder for Chicago-Pacific Northwest service, train travel between the Pacific Northwest and Denver now required going either west to California or east to Chicago. Amtrak sought to fill this gap in 1977 with the introduction of the Pioneer between Seattle and Salt Lake City, the all-coach train operated on a daily 24-hour schedule with connections available in Ogden, Utah with the San Francisco Zephyr. Meal service was provided in a cafe, one of the then-new Amfleet Am-dinettes. Coaches were all-reserved except between Portland and Seattle, where the Pioneer supplemented existing corridor service, in early 1977, Amtrak authorized approximately $500,000 to improve 13 stations along the route in Utah, Idaho and Oregon. Work included installation of passenger shelters, platforms and rehabilitation of existing stations, regular service began on June 7. The Pioneer began exchanging a Seattle–Chicago through coach with the San Francisco Zephyr on April 26,1981, the decision in 1983 by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to join Amtrak shifted the Zephyr south to the Moffat Tunnel Route. Amtrak renamed that train the California Zephyr, the interchange point shifted to the Pioneers terminus in Salt Lake City, also operating with the two trains was the Desert Wind, which served Los Angeles. On June 17,1991, the Pioneer began splitting from the California Zephyr in Denver, Colorado and proceeding over the Union Pacifics Overland Route in Wyoming, a bus at Ogden provided a connection to Salt Lake City. The combined California Zephyr/Desert Wind/Pioneer consisted of 16 Superliner cars, the longest such train Amtrak had ever operated and it required no fewer than four EMD F40PH diesel locomotives to haul the combined train through the Rocky Mountains between Denver and Salt Lake City. Having the Pioneer separate earlier reduced the load, further, the faster running time over the Overland Route allowed a more reasonable departure time from Seattle. The Pioneer began running thrice-weekly west of Denver on November 4,1993, in January 1997 Amtrak announced that the Pioneer would end May 10,1997 when a Congressionally-funded mandate to keep it operating expired. States affected were given until March 15 to submit funding proposals to keep the train operating, while visiting Pendleton, Oregon on February 22 Amtrak President Thomas M.8 million to fund the existing operation through that October when the new train could start. By the March 15 deadline state funding had not been secured although the funding package had been reduced. Instead of seeking $4.8 million, Amtrak asked the Oregon legislature for $2, Oregon refused to provide the loan guarantees because it found Amtraks collateral unacceptable. On April 10 Union Pacific told Amtrak that the express train would require $56 million in capital improvements
10.
National Register of Historic Places
–
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
11.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
12.
History of rail transport in the United States
–
This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series. Railroads played a role in the development of the United States from the industrial revolution in the North-east to the settlement of the West. The American railroad mania began with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1828 and flourished until the Panic of 1873 bankrupted many companies, the North and Midwest constructed networks that linked every city by 1860. In the heavily settled Midwestern Corn Belt, over 80 percent of farms were within 5 miles of a railway, facilitating the shipment of grain, hogs, State and local governments often subsidized lines, but rarely owned them. The system was built by 1910, but then trucks arrived to eat away the freight traffic. The use of electric locomotives made for much more efficient operations that needed fewer workers on the road. A series of bankruptcies and consolidations left the system in the hands of a few large operations by the 1980s. Almost all long-distance passenger traffic was shifted to Amtrak in 1971, commuter rail service is provided near a few major cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the District of Columbia. Computerization and improved equipment steadily reduced employment, which peaked at 2.1 million in 1920, route mileage peaked at 254,251 miles in 1916 and fell to 139,679 miles in 2011. Freight railroads continue to play an important role in the United States economy, especially for moving imports and exports using containers, according to the British news magazine The Economist, They are universally recognized in the industry as the best in the world. Productivity rose 172% between 1981 and 2000, while rates rose 55%, rails share of the American freight market rose to 43%, the highest for any rich country. In 1826 Massachusetts incorporated the Granite Railway as a freight carrier to primarily haul granite for the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument. To link the port of Baltimore to the Ohio River, the state of Maryland in 1827 chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Americans closely followed and copied British railroad technology. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier and started passenger service in May 1830. The B&O started developing steam locomotives in 1829 with Peter Coopers Tom Thumb and this was the first American-built locomotive to run in the U. S. although it was intended as a demonstration of the potential of steam traction rather than as a revenue-earning locomotive. The B&Os westward route reached the Ohio River in 1852, the first eastern seaboard railroad to do so, by 1850,9,000 miles of railroad lines had been built. A total of 129 million acres were granted to the railroads before the program ended, supplemented by a further 51 million acres granted by the states, and by various government subsidies. This program enabled the opening of numerous lines, especially the Union Pacific-Central Pacific with fast service from San Francisco to Omaha
