The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was the first railroad to cross Missouri starting in Hannibal in the northeast and going to St. Joseph, Missouri, in the northwest. It is said to have carried the first letter to the Pony Express on April 3, 1860, from a train pulled behind the locomotive Missouri.
The Missouri River is the longest river in North America. Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles (3,767 km) before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river takes drainage from a sparsely populated, semi-arid watershed of more than half a million square miles (1,300,000 km2), which includes parts of ten U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. When combined with the lower Mississippi River, it forms the world's fourth longest river system.
The First Hannibal Bridge was the first permanent rail crossing of the Missouri River and helped establish Kansas City, Missouri as a major city and rail center.
Kansas City is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city had an estimated population of 488,943 in 2017, making it the 37th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central city of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri state line. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a Missouri River port at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west. On June 1, 1850 the town of Kansas was incorporated; shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after.
Leavenworth is the county seat and largest city of Leavenworth County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 35,251. Located on the west bank of the Missouri River. The site of Fort Leavenworth, built in 1827, the city became known in American history for its role as a key supply base in the settlement of the American West. It is important in nineteenth-century African-American history. During the American Civil War, many volunteers joined the Union Army from Leavenworth. In 1866, the 10th Regiment of Cavalry, an all-black unit within the U.S. Army, was stood up at Fort Leavenworth. The city has been notable as the location of several prisons, particularly the United States Disciplinary Barracks and United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth.
St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri, United States. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County, Missouri, United States. It is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Buchanan, Andrew, and DeKalb counties in Missouri and Doniphan County, Kansas. As of the 2010 census, St. Joseph had a total population of 76,780, making it the eighth largest city in the state, and the third largest in Northwest Missouri. St. Joseph is located roughly thirty miles north of the Kansas City, Missouri city limits.
The Hannibal and St. Joseph was the first railroad to cross the state of Missouri and it carried mail for the Pony Express. However, when it was time to build a bridge across the river, Robert T. Van Horn, Kersey Coates and Charles E. Kearney put together a package to persuade the railroad to create a cutoff 50 miles east of St. Joseph at Cameron, Missouri to go to Kansas City to hook up with lines going on to Texas. Kearney was the subsidiary's first president.
The Pony Express was a mail service delivering messages, newspapers, and mail using relays of horse mounted riders that operated from April 3, 1860 to October 1861 between Missouri and California in the United States of America.
Robert Thompson Van Horn was a lawyer, the owner and publisher of The Kansas City Enterprise, mayor of Kansas City, Missouri during the parts of the Civil War, member of the Missouri General Assembly, and representative to the Forty-seventh Congress of the United States.
Kersey Coates was a businessman from Kansas City, in the U.S. state of Missouri, who developed Quality Hill, founded the Kansas City Board of Trade, and was among those who attracted the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad to the city.
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Interstate 72 (I-72) is an Interstate Highway in the midwestern United States. Its western terminus is in Hannibal, Missouri, at an intersection with U.S. Route 61; its eastern terminus is at Country Fair Drive in Champaign, Illinois. The route runs through the major cities of Decatur, Illinois and Springfield, Illinois. In 2006, the Illinois General Assembly dedicated all of Interstate 72 as Purple Heart Memorial Highway. The stretch between Springfield and Decatur is also called Penny Severns Memorial Expressway, and the section between Mile 35 and the Mississippi River is known as the Free Frank McWorter Historic Highway.
Kearney is a city in Clay County, Missouri, United States. The population per the 2010 U.S. Census was 8,381. It is most famous for being the birthplace of Jesse James, and there is an annual festival in the third weekend of September to recognize the notorious outlaw.
Cameron is a city in Clinton, DeKalb and Caldwell counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was 9,933 at the 2010 census.
Hannibal is a city in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. Interstate 72 and U.S. Routes 24, 36, and 61 intersect in the city, which is located along the Mississippi River, approximately 100 miles (160 km) northwest of St. Louis and approximately 100 miles (160 km) west of Springfield, Illinois. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population was 17,606, making it the largest city in Marion County. The bulk of the city is in Marion County, with a tiny sliver in the south extending into Ralls County.
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and also in New Mexico and Texas through subsidiaries Colorado and Southern Railway, Fort Worth and Denver Railway, and Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver. Because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans "Everywhere West", "Way of the Zephyrs", and "The Way West".
U.S. Route 36 (US 36) is an east–west United States highway that travels approximately 1,414 miles (2,276 km) from Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado to Uhrichsville, Ohio. The highway's western terminus is at Deer Ridge Junction, an intersection in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, where it meets US 34. Its eastern terminus is at US 250 in Uhrichsville, Ohio.
Robert Marcellus Stewart was the 14th Governor of Missouri from 1857 to 1861, during the critical years just prior to the American Civil War.
The first Burning of Platte City, Missouri occurred during the American Civil War on December 16, 1861, after Union troops attempted to capture the bushwhacker Silas M. Gordon.
The Platte Bridge Railroad Tragedy was a bushwhacker attack on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad during the American Civil War on September 3, 1861, in which the train derailed on a bridge over the Platte River east of St. Joseph, Missouri, killing between 17 and 20 and injuring 100. The bridge crosses the river in Buchanan County, between Marion Township on the east, and Washington Township on the west.
The Pencoyd Railroad Bridge is a former railroad bridge in Kansas City, Missouri, that was converted into the Freight House Pedestrian Bridge and moved to its new location where it connects Union Station and the Crossroads Arts District.
Charles Esmond Kearney was the first president of the Kansas City and Cameron Railroad which as a subsidiary of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad and built the Hannibal Bridge establishing Kansas City, Missouri as the dominant city in the region.
U.S. Route 36 in the state of Missouri is an expressway with many freeway sections, connecting Kansas to Illinois. From Cameron to the Illinois state line, it forms part of the principal route between Kansas City and Chicago, known as the Chicago–Kansas City Expressway.
The Keystone Bridge Company, founded in 1865 by Andrew Carnegie, was an American bridge building company. It was one of the 28 companies absorbed into the American Bridge Company in 1900. The company advertised its services for building steel, wrought iron, wooden railway and road bridges. It held a patent for wrought iron bridges and also supplied wrought iron columns for buildings. Thomas Carnegie worked for Keystone Bridge as treasurer for roughly 20 years, from the founding of the company until his death in 1886.
The Chicago–Kansas City Expressway is a highway that runs between Chicago, Illinois, and Claycomo, Missouri. The road is known as Route 110 in Missouri and Illinois Route 110 (IL 110) in Illinois. IL 110 was created through legislation on May 27, 2010, as the designated route for the Illinois portion of the Chicago–Kansas City Expressway.
St. Munchin Parish is a parish of the Catholic Church located in Cameron, Missouri, in the Diocese of Kansas City–Saint Joseph. It is the mother church for St. Aloysius, a mission church in Maysville.
