Burlington Northern Railroad
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Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) BN
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The Burlington Northern railroad was formed on March 2, 1970, by the merger of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Northern Pacific Railway, Great Northern and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway. (BNSF Web site)
On December 31, 1996 the Burlington Northern merged with the Santa Fe to become the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.
According to the BNSF Web site, James J. Hill, the founder of Great Northern Railway, attempted to merge Great Northern and Northern Pacific in 1893 but was denied by the U.S. government. Again, in 1901, Hill tried merging the two railroads but this time with the Chicago Burlington and Quincy but was again denied by the government. (BNSF Web site)
The railroads tried to merge a total of four times (1893, 1901, 1927, 1961) before finally receiving approval. (BNSF Web site) For many years they shared a headquarters in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 1981 Burlington Northern, Inc were moved to Seattle, Washington and in 1988 moved to Fort Worth, Texas.
In 1980, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco) was acquired and merged into Burlington Northern. (BNSF Web site)
