Gould, George Jay

Gould, George Jay go͞old [key], 1864–1923, U.S. railroad owner, b. New York City; son of Jay Gould. He was associated with his father, inherited all the holdings on Jay Gould's death, and adopted daring policies. To compete with E. H. Harriman he bought the Denver & Rio Grande RR. When Harriman bought the Southern Pacific and bottled up the Gould roads, Gould purchased the Western Pacific and completed it to San Francisco to get an outlet to the sea. In the east he also bought or built lines from Toledo to Baltimore via Pittsburgh to give the Wabash RR an outlet to the Atlantic and to challenge the monopoly of the Pennsylvania RR. He seemed to have a transcontinental system in his grasp, but his financing was unsound, and he crashed in the Panic of 1907. By 1918 all the roads had been lost.

See E. P. Hoyt, Jr., Goulds (1969).

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