Mississippi and Missouri Railroad

Thomas C. Durant, vice president of the Union Pacific Railroad, owned stock in both.

The M&M line originally was created so that the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad could extend its line across the Mississippi River into Iowa via the Rock Island Bridge, the first bridge to cross the Mississippi.

The M&M and Rock Island hired private attorney Abraham Lincoln to defend the bridge.

[2] During Lincoln's investigation into the case, he traveled to Council Bluffs to inspect M&M property in August 1859 under the guidance of the M&M attorney Norman Judd.

First he drove up and sold M&M stock by saying the transcontinental railroad would travel across Iowa via the M&M while at the same time quietly buying depressed Cedar Rapids and Missouri Railroad (CR&MR) stock.