Evansville has historically been a center for railway traffic. The Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad was first completed in 1853. The Big Four, Illinois Central, and the Southern Railway served the city in early decades of the 20th century. The Chicago & Eastern Illinois closed its station in 1935 and merged its trains into the Louisville and Nashville Railroad station. Evansville's last remaining depot, the L&N station, last had passenger trains in 1971 with unnamed remnants of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois' and the Louisville and Nashville's "Georgian": one to St. Louis, and another to Atlanta via Nashville.