Previous to the coming of the railroad, communication with the outside world was maintained by means of stage lines; Dubuque, Clinton, Davenport, Muscatine, Iowa City, and Waterloo being reached by that method. Freight and supplies were brought in by wagon, though in the early days there was some steamboat traffic on the Cedar river as far as Cedar Rapids.
It required hard work, and plenty of it, to get that first new line of railway into Cedar Rapids. Marion, the old, substantial town and the county seat, wanted the road—and came pretty near getting it, too. The next move in railway construction work for the community was the extension of the new line west, on its way to the Missouri river, a line which is today the main artery of the Chicago & Northwestern system, forming an important part of the great highway of steel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific.
The original promoters of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railway, living in Cedar Rapids, were anxious that that company should build a branch line up the Cedar valley from this point, and thus tap the rich and rapidly growing territory lying to the northwest of Cedar Rapids. But the company had no time or money with which to build side lines or branches. Its objective point was the Missouri river and the great beyond. So Judge George Greene, S. L. Dows, and other prominent public spirited men took up the task of constructing a road from Cedar Rapids to Vinton and Waterloo. Burlington capitalists and promoters joined in the work of extending the line from Cedar Rapids southeast to Burlington, and in a few years the embryo of what later became the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern, the "Cedar Rapids route," with its lines radiating from Cedar Rapids to Clinton, Muscatine, Burlington, What Cheer, Iowa City, Sioux Falls, Watertown, Worthington, Forest City, Albert Lea, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Decorah, was in existence. The shops, roundhouses and general offices of the road were located in Cedar Rapids, and everybody took pride and a personal interest in speaking of the institution as the "Home Road." The absorption of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern by the great Rock Island system, thus giving Cedar Rapids direct connections with all stations on that road, is a matter so recent as to be hardly history as yet. This change has been more in name than in reality. The shops are maintained, as in years past. An even larger army of trainmen and operative employes make Cedar Rapids their home, and the general offices for the northern district make use of the general office building constructed by the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway Co.
Cedar Rapids' third railway enterprise was the securing of the Dubuque & Southwestern, locally known as the "Slough Shore," from the manner of its entrance into the town. This railway was built and operated by the Farleys, father and sons, of Dubuque, and for many years, with its connection with the Illinois Central at Farley, maintained the only line of direct communication between Dubuque and Cedar Rapids. In the early days some very peculiar railroading was done on the Farley line, and the incidents and happenings, if gathered together, would make an extended volume.
The Dubuque and Southwestern is now a part of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system, and over its tracks trains now run to Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, as well as to the original sleepy little terminus of Farley.
The last steam road to enter Cedar Rapids was the Illinois Central, a line being constructed from Manchester by the late S. L. Dows. This line opens up to the shippers and business men of Cedar Rapids direct connections with the Illinois Central, and is of peculiar value in the traffic in southern and tropical fruits and commodities which come by water to New Orleans.
More recently the interurban between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City has been constructed, and with its hourly service it has won a business which makes certain the building of other and equally as promising lines in the near future.
Cedar Rapids of 1909, from a railroad point of view, is the traffic pivot of the middle west. Centering here are four of the largest railway systems of the country—the Chicago & Northwestern, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Rock Island, and the Illinois Central. From Cedar Rapids direct lines radiate to Chicago, Peoria, St. Louis, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Council Bluffs, Omaha, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Watertown, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Milwaukee, the total mileage of the lines entering Cedar Rapids being about 35,000 miles. Direct service is maintained between Cedar Rapids and nearly 1,750 stations in Iowa, to say nothing of the thousands of stations in other and surrounding states reached by direct train service from this city. More than 225 railway and interurban trains arrive in or depart from Cedar Rapids daily. Approximately 80,000 carloads of freight are handled annually. The freight earnings are about $3,500,000 and the passenger receipts are about $1,200,000 each year. Three express companies, the American, the United States, and the Wells-Fargo, maintain offices in Cedar Rapids.
Recognizing the future of Cedar Rapids as a railroad, manufacturing and distributing center, the railroads have all been expending vast sums of money in the past few years in the acquisition of property for terminal purposes. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Illinois Central, and the Rock Island now control absolutely the entire section of the city lying between Fifth and Ninth avenues, the river and Third street, and it is only fair to presume that the four blocks between Third and Fourth streets and Fifth and Ninth avenues will also be devoted exclusively to railway purposes. South of the city, along the river bank, the Chicago & Northwestern is expending thousands of dollars in the filling in of a large section of low land and old river bed, and on this made ground new and enlarged terminals and switch yards will be built.
The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific is now engaged in the construction of its new terminals and freight depot on the blocks lying between Second and Third streets and Fifth and Ninth avenues, and when completed these terminals and depot will be ample for the accommodation of a freight business of a city of hundreds of thousands of population.