After two years of leasing the property to local companies, in 1881 the city entered a 25-year lease to an entity called Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway, which was held by an English corporation controlled by German-born Parisian banker Frédéric Émile d'Erlanger. Soon Erlanger held all five segments of railroad from Cincinnati to New Orleans, and west from Meridian, Mississippi to Shreveport, Louisiana. This was dubbed the Queen and Crescent Route, connecting the Queen City to the Crescent City.