Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad

The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, popularly known as the Rock Island Line or simply the Rock, was an American Class I freight and passenger railroad headquartered in Chicago that operated from 1852 until 1980. Its predecessor, the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company, was incorporated in Illinois in 1847, and the line became the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River when it reached Rock Island in 1854. At its peak the railroad operated more than 7,000 miles of road across fourteen states from Colorado and New Mexico to Louisiana and Tennessee. Facing declining traffic and failed merger negotiations, the company entered bankruptcy in 1975 and ceased operations entirely when its final train reached Denver on March 31, 1980.