Davenport and Farnham were business partners, trading with the local Native Americans.

[6] The southern portion of Rock Island, including today's Watch Hill area, was originally known as Searstown.

This area has been a fortuitous place first for settlement and then for steamboat traffic, bridges, and railroads.

The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad (RI) was founded here in 1851, known informally as the Rock Island Line; over the next century, the railroad grew to serve fourteen states but ended in bankruptcy in 1980.

[8] The Rock Island Arsenal has manufactured military equipment and ordnance for the U.S. Army since the 1880s.

The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River was built between Arsenal Island and Davenport in 1856.

[9] The owner of the Effie Afton sued the bridge company for damages, and the case, Hurd v. Rock Island Bridge Co., featured Abraham Lincoln as one of the lawyers who defended the railroad at trial in September, 1857.

[9][10] This test case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the railroad in 1862.

[11] On the Iowa side, the bridge was located near where 4th and Federal streets intersect with River Drive.

The Government Bridge, completed in 1896, is notable for having two sets of railroad tracks above the car lanes.

15, completed in 1934 as a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Great Depression, is the largest roller dam in the world.

On the south side of the city, overlooked by the Black Hawk State Historic Site, are auto and railroad crossings of the Rock River to Milan, Illinois.

Villa de Chantal Catholic school closed in 1978, and the building was destroyed by fire in 2005.

The Islanders played at Douglas Park and were affiliates of the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia A's.

The Rock Island Legion Post 200 baseball team won the 4th State Championship in its history in 2011 in Galesburg, Illinois.

With exception to 1997, when the annual race was canceled due to legal liability issues, the Rock Island Grand Prix has been held every year since 1994.

Rock Island High School has won state championships in basketball, girls and boys track, softball, and wrestling.

Rock Island Public Schools Stadium has an artificial surface and has a seating capacity of over 15,000.

District Station in downtown Rock Island serves as a hub of the system.