The \"Burlington Northern\" is the legacy of some of the nation's greatest railroads. \"Burlington is the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, which was founded in 1850, with predecessors dating from 1849. \"Northern\" stands for the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern, which were founded in 1864 and 1889 respectively, and which between them literally defined the early industrial development of the entire northwest quadrant of the United States. It was these four principal entities that came together to form Burlington Northern on March 2, 1970. This book is the story of these four (and of the St. Louis-San Francisco which joined Burlington Northern in 1980) as well as of the Burlington Northern itself. It is also about James Jerome Hill, the Ontario-born visionary and entrepreneur who built the foundation for these great roads and who will forever be known simply as \"The Empire Builder.\"