The first survey for a railroad in the State of Iowa was made in the fall of 1852. The proposed road had its initial point at Davenport and followed a westerly course. It was practically an extension of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, which was then being built between Chicago and the Mississippi River. On the 22d day of December, 1852, the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company was formed, its object being to build, maintain and operate a railroad from Davenport to Council Bluffs. The articles of association were acknowledged before John F. Dillon, notary public, and filed for record in the office of the Recorder of Scott County, on the 26th of January, 1853, and in the office of the Secretary of State on the first day of February following. In 1853 the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company entered into an agreement with the Railroad Bridge Company of Illinois for the construction and maintenance of a bridge over the Mississippi at Rock Island. The work was commenced in the fall of that year, and the bridge was completed on April 21, 1856, it being then the only bridge spanning the Mississippi River. The first division of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, extending from Davenport to Iowa City, was completed on the first of January, 1856, and was formally opened two days later. A branch line to Muscatine was completed shortly thereafter. On the first day of July the State of Iowa had in all sixty-seven miles of railroad, bonded at $14,925 a mile, which at that time probably represented the total cost of construction. The earnings of these sixty-seven miles of road during the six months following July 1, 1856, amounted to $184,193, or $2,749 per mile, which was equal to an annual income of about $5,500 per mile. On the 15th of May, 1856, Congress granted to the State of Iowa certain lands for the purpose of "aiding in the construction of railroads from Burlington, on the Mississippi River, to a point on the Missouri River near the mouth of the Platte River; from the city of Davenport, Iowa, by way of Iowa City and Fort Des Moines, to Council Bluffs; from Lyons City northwesterly to a point of intersection with the main line of the Iowa Central Air Line Railroad near Maquoketa, thence on said line running as near as practical to the forty-second parallel across the State; and from the city of Dubuque to the Missouri River near Sioux City." The grant comprised the alternate sections designated by odd numbers and lying within six miles from each of the proposed roads. Provision was also made for indemnity for all lands covered by the grant which were already sold or otherwise disposed of.