American railroad track miles has more than doubled in the twenty-five years after the American Civil War changing the face of America forever.

American railroads allow products made in the East to be shipped to the expanding West less expensively than in previous years.

This allows for an economy of scale—larger, more efficient factories.

The agricultural heartland of America is no longer confined to a market of single day's trip by wagon.

Railroad and railroad construction have become one of the largest industries during this era.

By 1881, one out of thirty-two people in the United States is either employed by a railroad or engaged in railroad construction.

Starting about 1877, two great railroad developers, William H. Vanderbilt and Jay Gould, had begun competing for the railroad traffic along the south shore of the Great Lakes.

By 1878, William Vanderbilt had gained a monopoly on rail traffic between Buffalo, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Chicago, because he owns the only railroad linking these cities—the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway.

In addition, he is the richest man in America at this time.

By 1881, Gould, who is considered the most ruthless financial operator in America, controls about fifteen percent of all U.S. railroad mileage, most of it west of the Mississippi River.

Gould's major railroad east of the Mississippi River is the three hundred and thirty-five-mile- (five hundred and thirty-nine kilometer-) Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway (Wabash).

The Wabash mainline runs from St. Louis, Missouri to Toledo, Ohio where it is forced to deliver its railroad traffic to Vanderbilt's Lake Shore Railroad for delivery to the eastern United States.

Gould and Vanderbilt together oversee all east-west rail traffic in the mid-west.

The Seney Syndicate, owners of a three hundred and fifty mile-mile (five hundred and sixty kilometer) railroad, the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, are interested in tapping new sources of revenue.

The stage is set for the creation of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad.

The Seney Syndicate, headed by George I. Seney, had met at Seney's New York bank and organized the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company on February 3, 1881.

The original proposal for the NYC&StL is a three hundred and forty-mile (five hundred and fifty kilometer) railroad west from Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois with a three hundred and twenty-five-mile (five hundred and twenty-five kilometer) branch to St. Louis, Missouri.

The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company buys the Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago Railway, a railroad that been surveyed from the west side of Cleveland, Ohio to Buffalo, New York running parallel to Vanderbilt's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, on April 13, 1881.

The idea of an east-west railroad across northern Ohio is very popular with the people of Ohio, who want to break the high freight rates charged by Gould and Vanderbilt.

No one is less popular in Ohio than William Vanderbilt since the December 29, 1876 collapse of Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway's Ashtabula River trestle, where sixty-four people had been injured and nninety-two were killed or died later from injuries.

Another reason for the popularity of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway is the positive economic impact on cities that any new railroad goes through at this time.

During a newspaper war to attract the New York, Chicago and St. Louis, the Norwalk, Ohio Chronicle Newspaper referrs to the New York, Chicago and St. Louis as "... double-track nickel-plated railroad."

The New York, Chicago and St. Louis will adopt the nickname and it will become better known as the Nickel Plate Road.

It had been decided to start building the Nickel Plate line along the surveyed route between Cleveland, Ohio and Buffalo, New York rather than build the branch to St. Louis, Missouri.

Five hundred days later, the Nickel Plate's five hundred and thirteen mile-mile (eight hundred and twenty-five kilometer) single-track mainline from Buffalo, New York to Chicago is complete.

The railroad is estimated to require ninety thousand long tons (eighty thousand metric tons) of steel rails, each weighing sixty pounds per linear yard (thiry kilograms per meter)) and one and a half million oak crossties.

Additionally, the railroad requires forty-nine major bridges.

It is characterized by long sections of straight track, mild grades and impressive bridges.

The Nickel Plate runs its first trains over the entire system on October 16, 1882.

During construction, Vanderbilt and Gould had watched with great interest.

If either of them can acquire the Nickel Plate, they can end the threat to their railroads.

If the Nickel Plate remains independent, it will be able to create a substantial dent in both entrepreneurs' railroad earnings.

Vanderbilt had tried to lower the value of the Nickel Plate by organizing a campaign to smear its reputation before a train ever ran on its tracks.

If Vanderbilt had been successful, he could have scared the Seney Syndicate into selling to him or driven the railroad company into bankruptcy.

However, Vanderbilt's plan had come with two important risks.

If he slandered the line, he risked chasing the Seney Syndicate into an alliance with Gould.

The other risk was that his plan to smear the Nickel Plate's reputation might fail and it could quickly grow.

Vanderbilt had claimed the road was being built with substandard materials and it would use unsafe practices once completed.

He had succeeded in creating long-standing rumors about the line, but had failed to devalue the company or scare the investors.

The cost of construction had been higher than expected and the Seney Syndicate had begun to negotiate with Gould to purchase the railroad, but, unlike Vanderbilt, Gould lacks the capital.

Frustrated at the failing talks, Gould had broken off negotiations and had given up on his attempt to break Vanderbilt.

In early 1881, Vanderbilt could have had the Nickel Plate for one million dollars, equal to $24,082,759 today.

He realized if he allowed Gould to gain control of the Nickel Plate his monopoly on rail traffic from Toledo, Ohio, to the east would be broken.

He had decided he will do anything to keep the Nickel Plate out of Gould's hands.

On October 25, 1882, (a few days after the first trains ran) the Seney Syndicate sells the Nickel Plate to Vanderbilt for 7.2 million dollars, equal to $173,395,862 today.

Vanderbilt transfers it to his Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway.

However, Vanderbilt has a problem: he cannot run the business into the ground or it will fall into receivership and someone else will buy it.

He cannot close the Nickel Plate either, because it had cost a fortune to buy.

So, the Nickel Plate Road does business, but just enough to keep it solvent.

By the advent of the 1920s, the Nickel Plate will be an obscure line that earns its keep through the transfer of freight from other rail connections.

During the same period, Vanderbilt's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern will prosper and expand.

The Knights of Labor had strongly supported the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Contract Labor Law of 1885, as had many other labor groups, although the Knights do accept most others, including skilled and unskilled women of any profession.

The Wabash Railroad strike in 1885 had also been a significant success for the Knights, as Terence Powderly had finally supported what had become a successful strike on Jay Gould's Wabash Line.

Gould had met with Powderly and agreed to call off his campaign against the Knights of Labor, which had caused the turmoil originally.

These positive developments have given momentum and a surge of members, so by 1886, the Knights have over seven hundred thousand members.

Membership declines with the problems of an autocratic structure, mismanagement, and unsuccessful strikes.

Disputes between the skilled trade unionists (also known as craft unionists) and the industrial unionists weaken the organization.

The top leadership does not believe that strikes are an effective way to up the status of the working people, and fails to develop the infrastructure that is necessary to organize and coordinate the hundreds of strikes, walkouts, and job actions spontaneously erupting among the membership.

The Knights fail in the highly visible Missouri Pacific strike in 1886.

At the time of the strike, Gould owns all the elevated rail lines in New York City, the Western Union telegraph service and the Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Missouri Kansas & Texas (M-K-T) railroads.

In total, Gould owns almost twelve percent of all railroad track in the U. S. The strike begins when a member of the Knights of Labor in Marshall, Texas is fired for attending a union meeting on company time.

The local chapter of the Knights calls a strike.

Soon, more than two hundred thousand workers are on strike in Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Texas.

Although the dismissal of the leadman in Texas had sparked the initial strike, wages, hours and unsafe working conditions motivate most of the strikers.

From the start there are problems.

The Brotherhood of Engineers refuses to honor the strike, and its members keep working.

Meanwhile, Gould immediately hires strikebreakers to work the railroad, allegedly declaring, "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."

Pinkerton detectives are employed to protect railroad property.

On March 19, 1886, Powderly meets in Kansas City, Missouri with other leaders of the Knights, the governors of Kansas and Missouri, and railroad officials to try to bring an end to the strike.

The meeting continues for two days, but the parties are unable to reach an agreement.

After several incidents of 'union violence' occur, Gould requests military assistance from the governors of the affected states.

The governor of Missouri mobilizes the state militia; the governor of Texas mobilizes both the state militia and the Texas Rangers.

The governor of Kansas refuses after local officials report no incidents of violence, despite claims by railway executives that mobs had seized control of trains and rail yards were burning.

The exercise of state police power on behalf of the railways leads union members to retaliate.

Switching houses are burned, mechanic shops wrecked and trains uncoupled.

Shots are fired at a moving train in Missouri.

A favorite tactic of the rail workers is to let steam locomotives go cold, forcing the railroad to spend up to six hours slowly reheating the engines for use.

As the violence spreads, public opinion turns against the workers.

The physical attacks by the Pinkerton agents scare thousands of workers into returning to work.

The strike peters out during the summer of 1886.

By September, the strike is over.

The Great Southwest Railroad Strike, the Haymarket riot, and the collapse of the 1887 Sugar Strikes in Louisiana have demoralized the Knights of Labor and energized management.

The failure of the Great Southwest Railroad Strike represents the first major defeat sustained by the Knights of Labor.

When the strike did not draw the support of the engineers and other industrial workers, the Knights' vision of an industrial union had withered as well.

Internal conflict has broken out between various factions within the Knights, paralyzing the union.