Did you know that The Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad companies received massive loans from the U.S. government to build the First Transcontinental Railroad— However, Collis P. Huntington persuaded a friendly member of Congress to introduce a bill excusing the companies from repaying the money, amounting to $130 million (nearly $3 billion+ in 2009 money). Circa: 1866
Collis Potter Huntington (April 16, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who built the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. Notice also that Stanford, Hopkins, and Crocker were all Silicon Valley boys, before it was Silicon! The University, The hotel, and the bank...?
Huntington then helped lead and develop other major interstate lines such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulfilled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link from the James River at Richmond to the Ohio River Valley. The new railroad facilities adjacent to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte, West Virginia into part of a new city which was named Huntington in his honor.
And so...the bailouts started long before Obama came into power. Something to think about. Perhaps.
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