Rail Center

Rail Center. . , If you wanted a steak in New York before 1867, you pretty much had to wait until your dinner came in on four legs from Texas to the railheads in central Missouri, and finally hitched a train to Chicago. It was there that cattle were unceremoniously turned into top sirloin and T-bones, and sent by train to restaurants on the East Coast., But 800-mile cattle drives from Texas to Missouri were hardly an efficient way to move meat. There were weather, bandits and Indian Territory with which to contend. That’s what got meat packer, Joseph McCoy, thinking. As the Kansas Pacific Railroad stretched from Kansas City to the west, McCoy searched for a new spot for a railhead in Kansas. That, he figured, could cut hundreds of miles off the cattle drive. He found his spot in Abilene, and the railhead was established. That same year, Octave Chanute began building the Hannibal Bridge, the first span across the Missouri River at Kansas City; thus completing the link between east and west trade., Of course, in the 20th century, rails were necessary to move people more quickly as well. In 1914, Kansas City celebrated the opening of Union Station, designed by Chicago architect, Jarvis Hunt. Soldiers from two world wars said good-bye to their loved ones here, and the lucky ones returned through its gates to be reunited again at the war’s end., Today, Union Station has been returned to its glorious Beaux-Arts opulence and is now home to Science City Museum, as well as a host of popular entertainment and dining experiences. The station was placed on the National Historic Register in 1972.