Editing Jay Gould (section)

==More railroads==
===Erie Railroad===
In 1873, Gould attempted to take control of the [[Erie Railroad]] by recruiting foreign investments from [[Lord Gordon-Gordon]], supposedly a cousin of the wealthy [[Clan Campbell|Campbell clan]], who was buying land for immigrants. He bribed Gordon-Gordon with a million dollars in stock, but Gordon-Gordon was an impostor and cashed the stock immediately. Gould sued him and the case went to trial in March 1873. In court, Gordon-Gordon gave the names of the Europeans whom he claimed to represent, and was granted bail while the references were checked. He immediately fled to [[Canada]], where he convinced authorities that the charges were false.<ref name="Brewer's">{{cite book|last=Donaldson|first=William|author-link=William Donaldson|title=Brewer's Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics|publisher=Phoenix|year=2004|location=London|pages=299–300|isbn=0-7538-1791-8}}</ref><ref name="TMHS">{{cite web|last=Johnson|first=J.L.|url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/transactions/3/lordgordongordon.shtml|title=Lord Gordon Gordon|publisher=The Manitoba Historical Society|access-date=August 22, 2008}}</ref>

Having failed to convince Canadian authorities to hand over Gordon-Gordon, Gould attempted to kidnap him, with the help of his associates, and future members of Congress, [[Loren Fletcher]], [[John Gilfillan]], and [[Eugene McLanahan Wilson]]. The group did capture Gordon-Gordon, but they were stopped and arrested by the [[North-West Mounted Police]] before they could return to the US. Canadian authorities put them in prison and refused them bail,<ref name="Brewer's"/><ref name="TMHS"/> which led to an international dispute between the United States and Canada. When he learned that they had been denied bail, Governor [[Horace Austin]] of Minnesota demanded their return, and he put the local militia on full readiness. Thousands of Minnesotans volunteered for an invasion of Canada. After negotiations, the Canadian authorities released the men on bail. Gordon-Gordon was eventually ordered to be deported, but committed suicide before the order could be carried out.<ref name="Brewer's"/><ref name="TMHS"/>

===Western railroads===
[[File:Jay Gould's Private Bowling Alley - Opper 1882.jpg|thumb|1882 cartoon depicting [[Wall Street]] as "Jay Gould's Private Bowling Alley"]]

After being forced out of the Erie Railroad, Gould started to build up a system of railroads in the Midwest and West. He took control of the [[Union Pacific]] in 1873, after its stock had been depressed by the [[Panic of 1873]], and he built a viable railroad that depended on shipments from farmers and ranchers. He immersed himself in every operational and financial detail of the Union Pacific system, building an encyclopedic knowledge of the network and acting decisively to shape its destiny. Biographer Maury Klein states that "he revised its financial structure, waged its competitive struggles, captained its political battles, revamped its administration, formulated its rate policies, and promoted the development of resources along its lines."<ref>Maury Klein, ''Jay Gould,'' (1966) p. 147</ref><ref>Maury Klein, "In Search of Jay Gould." ''Business History Review''  52#2 (1978): 166–199.</ref>

By 1879, Gould had gained control of two important Western railroads, including the [[Missouri Pacific Railroad]] and the [[Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad|Denver and Rio Grande Railway]]. He controlled {{convert|10000|mi}} of railway, about one-ninth of the rail network in the United States at that time. He obtained a controlling interest in the [[Western Union]] telegraph company and, after 1881, in the elevated railways in New York City, and he had a controlling interest in 15 percent of the country's railway tracks by 1882. The railroads were making profits and could set their own rates, so his wealth increased dramatically. Gould withdrew from management of the Union Pacific in 1883, amid political controversy over its debts to the federal government, but he realized a large profit for himself. 

In 1889, he organized the [[Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis]], which acquired a bottleneck in east–west railroad traffic at St. Louis but, after Gould died, the government brought an antitrust suit to eliminate the bottleneck control.<ref>''[[United States v. Terminal R.R. Ass'n]]''.</ref>