and the trade opportunities that access to the pacific coast would offer. In 1878, Hill and a group of Canadians bought out the almost non-existent St. Paul and Pacific Railroad and began expanding, changing the name of the railroad to the Great Northern. Hills goal was the Pacific and beyond. 13In 1889, Hill committed himself to a railroad to the Pacific Northwest. He did not know if he and his associates had the financial resourcesbut did know that a newly constructed, properly engineered and financed railway would be far more profitable than the ramshackle Northern Pacific. Thus was born the Great Northern Railway. 14 The Great Northern was unique in that it was built solely by private capital and received no outside aid or land grants from the United States government. In addition, it was the only rail line to finance itself on a pay-as-you-go basis. It encouraged agricultural development settlement rather than being dependent on government land grants.15 Therefore, it did not attract the huge financial interests and commercial development, which followed other rail lines. This self-sufficient basis of operation also allowed the Great Northern to stand strong in the face of the economic depressions, which bankrupted other railways.The final spike was driven on January 6, 1893, but, unlike the Northern Pacific for which passenger service began the day after the final spike was driven, passenger service on the Great Northern did not reach Seattle until June of that year. By that time, the United States was entering its worst depression so far. Newcomers traveling by rail poured into the region, especially into Washington at a rate unimaginable only a decade earlier. Cities and farms transformed the landscape, and large-scale business enterprises and organized labor attained prominence and power not possessed before.16The results of railroad construction in the Pacific Northwest were momentous. The railroad enormously exp...
