Lansing Manufacturers Railroad Lansing Manufacturers Railroad Lansing Manufacturers Railroad was a beltline switching railroad organized in 1904 to connect Cornelius Vanderbilt's Michigan Central mainline on the north edge of Lansing, Michigan, to automotive factories on the west and south side of the city and to Sir Henry Tyler's Grand Trunk Railroad along the north bank of the Grand River. The company's , C-shaped right of way lay entirely within the city limits. Important customers included GM's Reatta Craft Centre, Lansing Metal Center, and both plants of Lansing Car Assembly. Founded on August 30, 1904, with an authorized capital stock of $100,000, the LMR
Robert Lansing , Lansing backed Woodrow Wilson in issuing three notes of protest to the German government. William Jennings Bryan resigned as Secretary of State following Wilson's second note, which Bryan considered too belligerent. Lansing replaced Bryan, and said in his memoirs that following the "Lusitania" tragedy he always had the "conviction that we would ultimately become the ally of Britain". In 1916 Lansing hired a handful of men who became the State Department's first special agents in the new Bureau of Secret Intelligence. These agents were initially used to observe the activities of the Central Powers in America, and later to