Wachovia
Wachovia Corporation began on June 16, 1879 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as the Wachovia National Bank. The bank was co-founded by James Alexander Gray and William Lemly. In 1911, the bank merged with Wachovia Loan and Trust Company, "the largest trust company between Baltimore and New Orleans", which had been founded on June 15, 1893. Wachovia grew to become one of the largest banks in the Southeast partly on the strength of its accounts from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which was also headquartered in Winston-Salem. On December 12, 1986, Wachovia purchased First Atlanta. Founded as Atlanta National Bank on September 14, 1865, and later renamed to First National Bank of Atlanta, this institution was the oldest national bank in Atlanta. This purchase made Wachovia one of the few companies with dual headquarters: one in Winston-Salem and one in Atlanta. In 1991, Wachovia entered the South Carolina market by acquiring South Carolina National Corporation, founded as the Bank of Charleston in 1834. In 1998, Wachovia acquired two Virginia-based banks, Jefferson National Bank and Central Fidelity Bank. In 1997, Wachovia acquired both 1st United Bancorp and American Bankshares Inc, giving its first entry into Florida. In 2000, Wachovia made its final purchase, which was Republic Security Bank.
History of rail transport in Poland
In 1839, the "Warsaw-Vienna Railway Company" was founded as a joint stock company. In the same year it applied for a license to build the Warsaw-Vienna Railway line. Construction started in 1840, but in 1842 the company went bankrupt. The shares and property were taken over by the Government of Russian Poland in 1843 and construction continued. The first section (from Warsaw to Grodzisk Mazowiecki) was finished on 15 June 1845, and before December had reached Skierniewice. The whole line to "Granica" ("Border") station was completed in 1848, with a junction to Szkarpawa station of Kraków and Upper Silesia Railway. In the same year, after the outbreak of the Spring of Nations, the first large international railway-military operation dispatched over 200,000 mounted Russian soldiers from Warsaw to Vienna and Budapest to help the Emperor of Austria put down the uprising.
In 1859, the Government of Russia turned over the Warsaw–Vienna Railway to private owners.
Opened in 1865/66, the new double track branch of Warsaw–Vienna Railway from Koluszki to Łódż–Fabryczna was the most profitable railway in Congress Poland.