Railroads were charted in Minnesota as early as 1853, but the state's first railroad did not begin operating until 1862 on ten miles of track connecting St. Paul with St. Anthony, now part of Minneapolis. In 1870, the Northern Pacific Railroad began at Carlton, Minnesota, and reached Portland, Oregon, by 1884. By 1871, railroad lines had reached Minnesota's southern and western borders, and by 1893 the Great Northern Railway extended from St. Paul to Seattle. More than 150 railroad companies received charters and built lines into nearly every part of the state, consolidating by World War I into about a half dozen major railroads. This vast transportation system was made possible by public land grants to the railroads, estimated in 1873 at more than thirteen million acres worth more than fifty million dollars. Railroads were critical to Minnesota's development, linking its citizens, agricultural products, natural resources, and manufactured goods with the rest of the country, promoting towns and cities along their routes, and opening new markets through swift transportation. Minnesota railroad trackage reached its peak in 1929 at 9,500 miles. By the mid 1990s, fewer than 5,000 miles of track remained, passenger service apart from the modest Amtrak effort had ended by the mid 1970s, and decline and further consolidation left many small towns and rural areas without any rail service while numerous former rights-of-way and depots took on new recreational and other uses.