In the early 1900s, a group of railroad men conceived a plan of unprecendented grandeur: to construct a new railroad - long after the other great railroad empires had been built - between Chicago and New York ... powered by electricity ... perfectly straight and level ... to go faster over a shorter distance than had ever seemed possible ... and to finance it not by the enormous bond debts to banks that had hampered so many steam rail-lines, but by direct stock sales - and eventual dividend payments - to the public at large. Investments poured in, construction began ... then a deep depression hit the country ... and the great plan did not so much fail as disperse ... leaving behind amazing miles of railroad ... old photographs of perfectly straight tracks going off to the horizon ... ruins that exist to the present day ... and a fascination that still engages the attention of historians and railroad fans. This site aims to recover and make available all available information about this unique enterprise. | 
