Six days into the new year of 1893, James J. Hill, "The Empire Builder," finally extended his railroad empire from St. Paul to the Pacific Ocean. The last spike was driven into a railroad tie in Washington's Cascade Mountains, finishing the Great Northern Railroad's journey west.
Hill began his meteoric rise as one of the great 19th century "robber barons" when he arrived in St. Paul in 1856 at the age of 18. Employed as a bookkeeper for a steamboat company, the intelligent young Canadian quickly picked up the nuances of the shipping and transportation business.
Steamboats could not run in winter because of the frozen Mississippi, and Hill started his own side businesses. By the 1870s he was co-owner of a steamboat line, had a local monopoly on providing coal and was on the boards of several banks.
In 1878, he and his business partners acquired the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, the seed that would blossom into the Great Northern.
Hill's railroading philosophy was simple: build the best line you could, over the shortest, most direct route, with the fewest curves and lowest grades you could manage.
Unfortunately, the last mountain to overcome would not allow Hill's philosophy to be employed. Stevens Pass in the Cascades required a series of switchbacks to get over the summit. Twelve miles of track was needed to traverse about 4½ miles of terrain, with enough curving sections to create seven full circles.
It would take until 1900 for the first tunnel to be completed, alleviating the need for the switchback sections.
The last spike was not gold, but simple iron, driven by two of Hill's superintendents on the site.
