further Western connections which would reach the growing cities of the
Middle West. While the Fort Wayne route made a very direct connection
with Chicago and included branches of value, yet the keen competition
which was developing in the expansive years following the Civil War
made actual control of the Middle Western territory a matter of sound
business policy. The Vanderbilt lines were reaching out through Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois; the Baltimore and Ohio was steadily developing
its Western connections, and now Jay Gould had come actively on the
scene with large projects for the Erie. To offset these projects,
early in 1870 a "holding company"--probably the first of its kind on
record--known as the Pennsylvania Company was formed for the express
purpose of controlling and managing, in the interest of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, all lines leased or controlled or in the future to be acquired
by the Pennsylvania Railroad interests west of Pittsburgh and Erie. This
Company took over the lease of the Fort Wayne route and also acquired
control by lease of the Erie and Pittsburgh, a road extending northward
through Ohio to Lake Erie.

After this date the expansion of the system west of Pittsburgh went on
rapidly. In 1871 the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, which had been
opened as early as 1852, came under the Pennsylvania control. Soon after
this, many smaller lines in Ohio were merged in the system. The most
important acquisition during this period, however, was the result of the
purchase of the great lines extending westward from Pittsburgh to St.
Louis, with branches reaching southward to Cincinnati and northward to
Chicago. This system--then known as the "Pan Handle" route and later as
the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis was a consolidation
of several independent properties of importance which had been gradually
extending themselves over this territory during the previous decade.
This new system, which embraced over fourteen hundred miles of road,
gave the Pennsylvania a second line to Chicago, a direct line to
St. Louis, a second line to Cincinnati, and access to territory not
previously tapped.

While the achievements of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company during these
years of consolidation and expansion are not to be compared with those
of more modern times, it is well to realize that even as early as the
seventh decade of the last century this railroad was always in the
forefront in matters of hi