The route later became part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, owned by the New York Central Railroad.
[1] In 1857, the Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge was completed across the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and trains began to run from Philadelphia to Chicago along the Pennsylvania Railroad and Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Rail Road (later part of the PRR).
"Alphabet Route" referred to a series of railroads linking Chicago with Baltimore on the East Coast.
From west to east, this route consisted of the Nickel Plate Road (NKP, or New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad) going east from Chicago, connecting with what formerly had been the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad (acquired by the NKP in the late 1940s) at Cleveland.
Finally the P&WV would meet the Western Maryland Railroad (WM) outside of Pittsburgh, and traffic was carried to Baltimore and beyond.