The Mississippi River was at the center of most St. Louis commerce in the 1800s, and many
wealthy St. Louis families made their fortunes plying the river. Understandably, the construction of the Eads Bridge
across the Mississippi in 1868 (which Pacific RR Chief Engineer James Kirkwood had thought impossible) was
viewed as a serious threat to the rivermen whose business it was ferrying both goods and passengers across the river.
Realizing that the free interchange of railcars with eastern railroads threatened their vibrant monopoly,
several prominent steamboat operators (led by the colorful President of Wiggins Ferry Company, Pierre d' Rouge "Red"
LeFleur) formed the Union Railway Company. Their intent in doing so was to protect their economic interests
on the river by acquiring trackage and trackage rights in and around St. Louis, hoping that their new railroad company would
capture much of the revenue that would now be diverted from the river.
Their fears were not misplaced. About this same time the financier Jay Gould was creating his
railroad empire. Having recently acquired control of the Union Pacific, Central Pacific and Missouri Pacific railways,
Gould cast a covetous eye across the river, with dreams of assembling the first transcontinental railroad.
The steamship operators foresaw certain financial doom if Gould were to succeed, and scurried to acquire all the terminal
facilities and undeveloped real estate at both ends of the Eads Bridge. Alas, Gould's empire, built on borrowed money,
collapsed under its own weight before he crossed a single load to the other side of the river, and by 1885 the Union Railway
Company controlled most traffic crossing the river by either ferry or rail. However, the steamship's monopoly
was now a historic relic, and the obstinance of the river operators gave rise to what would soon become a larger conduit of commercial
traffic through the midwest...the city of Chicago.
