route, ending intercity service to the station, though Cleveland Rapid Transit continued its local services. In 1975, the Rapid and other municipal rail and bus routes were combined under the auspices of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. The station area was converted into a shopping mall known as Tower City Center, which opened in 1990. Decline and death The fortunes of the Van Sweringens rose in the 1920s. By 1929, their holdings were valued at $3 billion, mostly as a result of the high valuation of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange. Following the Great Depression, the brothers' rail empire suffered financial difficulties. Loans were foreclosed upon and assets were sold to meet interest payments for their debts. In 1933, O.P. Van Sweringen testified before the United States Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, in Washington, D.C., and during testimony, described their complex business dealings as it related to railroads. M.J. Van Sweringen's health began to decline in 1934, and he died on December 12, 1934. O.P. died on board a train near Hoboken of coronary thrombosis on November 22, 1936. At the time of his death, O.P.'s net worth was less than $3,000. The brothers are buried together in Cleveland's Lakeview Cemetery under a tombstone that reads: "Brothers". References Invisible Giants: The Empires of Cleveland’s Van Sweringen Brothers. Herbert H. Harwood Jr. Indiana University Press, 2003. External links Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry 20th-century American railroad executives History of Cleveland Businesspeople from Cleveland Shaker Heights, Ohio Sibling duos Burials at Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Pere Marquette Railway Erie Railroad New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Buckeye-Shaker