The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad, commonly referred to as the Milwaukee Road, is the end product of a series of mergers from 1847 to 1928 which involved 154 railroad lines. The Milwaukee Road began its evolution in Wisconsin with the Milwaukee and Waukesha Railway in 1847. Following construction and mergers the name changed to the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad in 1850. This line between 1851 and 1874 rapidly expanded eastward and westward through further mergers and extensive construction to become the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway. Expansion even further westward to Seattle in 1909 made it the last of the transcontinental lines. Almost twenty years after reaching the West Coast, the Milwaukee Road officially became the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1928.
The expansion of this railroad, its construction, and its financial problems have received extensive coverage in August Derleth's heavily documented book, The Milwaukee Road: Its First Hundred Years (New York: Creative Age Press, 1948).
