James J. Hill — Great Northern Railway, No Government Subsidies

**James Jerome Hill** was the only great railroad builder who did it without a dollar of government subsidy — and the only one whose railroad never went bankrupt. Born in 1838 near Guelph, Ontario (then Canada West), Hill lost his right eye to an arrow as a child, emigrated to Saint Paul, Minnesota as a teenager, and spent his twenties working in steamboat transportation and the freight business. He learned the transportation industry from the ground up — not from a banking desk or a government office, but from the docks, the warehouses, and the routes themselves. When he finally built the Great Northern Railway (completed to Seattle in 1893), he knew more about the terrain, the economics, and the logistics of every mile than any railroad executive in America.