Editing Northern Pacific Railway (section)

{{Short description|Defunct transcontinental railroad company in the northwest United States (1864-1970)}}
{{redirect|NPRR|the North Pennsylvania Railroad|North Pennsylvania Railroad}}
{{Infobox rail
| railroad_name  = Northern Pacific Railway
| logo_filename  = Northern Pacific Railway Logo, November, 1952.png
| logo_size      = 130px
| system_map     = [[File:Northern Pacific.png|230px]]
| map_caption    = The Northern Pacific Railway system map
| image          = Northern Pacific Office Building.jpg
| image_size     = 230px
| image_caption  = The former [[Northern Pacific Office Building]]<br />in [[Tacoma, Washington]]
| key_people     = {{plainlist|
* [[J. Gregory Smith]],<br />President (1865–1872)
* [[Henry Villard]], President & primary financier (1881–1884)
* [[Adna Anderson]],<br />Chief Engineer (1880–1888)
}}
{{Infobox
 | decat  = yes
 | child  = yes
 | title  = 
 | label2 = Founder
 | data2  =[[Josiah Perham]]
}}  
| marks=NP
| gauge          = {{track gauge|ussg|allk=on}}
| locale         = [[Ashland, Wisconsin]] and<br />[[Saint Paul, Minnesota]] to<br />[[Seattle]], Washington,<br />[[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma]], Washington,<br />and [[Portland, Oregon]]
| start_year     = 1864
| end_year       = 1970
| successor_line = [[Burlington Northern Railroad|Burlington Northern]]<br />(later [[BNSF Railway|BNSF]])
| hq_city        = [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]]
}}

The '''Northern Pacific Railway''' {{reporting mark|NP}} was an important [[transcontinental railroad]] that operated across the northern tier of the [[Western United States]], from [[Minnesota]] to the [[Pacific Northwest]]. It was approved and chartered in 1864 by the [[38th United States Congress|38th Congress of the United States]] in the national / federal capital of [[Washington, D.C.]], during the last years of the [[American Civil War]] (1861-1865), and given nearly {{convert|40|e6acre|sqmi km2}} of adjacent [[Land grant|land grants]], which it used to raise additional money in [[Europe]] (especially in President Henry Villard's home country of the new [[German Empire]]), for construction funding.

Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the [[Great Lakes]] to the [[Pacific Ocean]], just south of the [[United States-Canada border]] when [[Ulysses S. Grant]], drove in the final "golden spike" completing the line in western [[Montana Territory]] (future [[Montana|State of Montana]] in 1889), on September 8, 1883. The railroad had about {{convert|6800|mi}} of track and served a large area, including extensive trackage in the western Federal territories and later states of [[Idaho Panhandle|Idaho]], Minnesota, [[Montana]], [[North Dakota]], [[Oregon]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], and [[Wisconsin]]. In addition, the N.P. had an international branch running north to [[Winnipeg]], capital of the province of [[Manitoba]], in the newly organized [[Canada]]. The main activities were shipping wheat and other farm products, cattle, timber, and minerals; bringing in consumer goods, transporting passengers; and selling land.

The Northern Pacific was headquartered in Minnesota, first in [[Brainerd, Minnesota|Brainerd]], then in the state capital of [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|Saint Paul]]. It had a tumultuous financial history; the N.P. merged with other lines over a century later in 1970 to form the modern [[Burlington Northern Railroad]], which in turn merged with the famous [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]] to become the renamed [[BNSF Railway]] in 1996, operating in the western U.S.