William Waldorf Astor signed Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Co. Proxy dated 1890 - Autograph

Its ancestor, the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company, was incorporated in Illinois on February 27, 1847, and an amended charter was approved on February 7, 1851, as the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad. Construction began October 1, 1851, in Chicago, and the first train was operated on October 10, 1852, between Chicago and Joliet. Construction continued on through La Salle, and Rock Island was reached on February 22, 1854, becoming the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River. In Iowa, the C&RI's incorporators created (on February 5, 1853) the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company, to run from Davenport to Council Bluffs, and on November 20, 1855, the first train to operate in Iowa steamed from Davenport to Muscatine. The Mississippi river bridge between Rock Island and Davenport was completed on April 22, 1856.

In 1857, Abraham Lincoln represented the Rock Island in an important lawsuit regarding bridges over navigable rivers. The suit had been brought by the owner of a steamboat, which was destroyed by fire after running into the Mississippi river bridge. Lincoln argued that not only was the steamboat at fault in striking the bridge but that bridges across navigable rivers were to the advantage of the country. The M&M was acquired by the C&RI on July 9, 1866, to form the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company. The railroad expanded through construction and acquisitions in the following decades.

The Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad, also known as the Rock Island Line or The Rock in its final years, was an American Class I railroad. At the end of 1970, the railroad operated 7,183 miles of road on 10,669 miles of track. That year, it reported 20,557 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 118 million passenger-miles. (It’s possible that these totals include the former Burlington-Rock Island Railroad.) 

The song “Rock Island Line,” a spiritual from the late 1920s, was first recorded in 1934 and was inspired by the railroad.

The railroad’s predecessor, the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company, was incorporated in Illinois on February 27, 1847. An amended charter was approved on February 7, 1851, as the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad. Construction began in Chicago on October 1, 1851, and the first train was operated on October 10, 1852, between Chicago and Joliet. Construction continued through La Salle, and Rock Island was reached on February 22, 1854, becoming the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River.

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