Burlington Northern Railroad, the longest railway in the world by number of miles served "Burlington Northern is the world's largest railroad", AP report in Winona (MN) Daily News, March 2, 1970, p9 , was created by the merger of four railroads in the northern United States "Burlington Northern born today", Boston Globe, March 2, 1970, p26 The U.S. Supreme Court had upheld the merger on February 2, combining the Burlington Route (officially, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad), the Great Northern Railway, the Northern Pacific Railway, and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway into one network of 24398 miles of track in 18 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.