The Northern Pacific Railroad Company was created by an Act of Congress signed by President Lincoln on July 2, 1864, and as its tracks advanced, new towns were placed every 100–120 miles. In the Yellowstone River Valley, Glendive, Forsyth, Billings, and Livingston were creations of the railroad. Billings was established in 1882 and named after Fredrick Billings, president of the Northern Pacific Railway from 1879–1881. Federal Railroad Acts granted railroads alternating sections of land along their routes, and in Montana Territory the railroad received odd-numbered checkerboard sections extending forty miles from the track. In Billings, two of these odd-numbered sections overlapped because of land survey adjustments, and the railroad used that opportunity to place the line through the center of them. Montana Avenue north of the tracks and Minnesota Avenue on the south became Billings's main thoroughfares. The first railroad depot stood on the north side of the tracks at Montana Avenue and North 28th Street, also called North Broadway. Civic buildings, including the depot, courthouse, city hall, public library, and several prominent churches, were built on the north side, while the south side became the center of industrial development, the stock yards, the red light district, China town, and several notorious saloons.