U.S. railroad formed by the merger of the Illinois Central Railroad Co. and the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Railroad Co. The Illinois Central was chartered in 1851, and its first line was built from Galena to Cairo, Ill.
A spur line to Chicago was built as part of the acquisition of a federal land grant. It eventually absorbed more than 100 smaller railroads across the Midwest and south to the Gulf of Mexico. After merging with the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio in 1972, the railroad operated in 13 states. In 1985 it sold its line extending from Chicago to Iowa and Nebraska. The IC ships freight and operates passenger trains for Amtrak . It was a subsidiary of IC Industries, Inc. (later Whitman Corp.), a holding company formed in 1962. The railroad was privatized in 1989 and merged with Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) in 1999.