of GC&SF and the merger was completed. While GC&SF had officially become part of AT&SF, it was still an important section of the rail line. The fact that it connected so many major Texas cities with the most important port city in Texas made it a valuable acquisition. An interesting transaction occurred in 1897, which is proof of the line's continuing growth. The GC&SF company and Fred Harvey, a famous railroad restaurateur, made an agreement. Harvey Restaurants and Harvey Houses, a hotel chain, soon dotted the AT&SF, providing inexpensive, comfortable dining for the patrons of the line. Both the restaurants and the railway have been celebrated in song, literature, and the entertainment media. 20th century GC&SF also participated in Galveston's efforts to raise the city after the 1900 Galveston hurricane. In 1904, the board granted Goedhart and Bates a five-year lease to a strip of land on the east end of the Gulf Company in Galveston, which would be used for canal purposes in connection with the grade-raising of the city. In 1908 GC&SF, along with other railroads, worked to build a new causeway from Galveston to the mainland. Construction of a 98-mile branch line from Lometa through San Saba and Brady to Eden was commenced in 1910 and completed by the end of the following year. By 1912, AT&SF announced plans to build a new union depot in Galveston that would also house the offices of GC&SF. Their plans were for an eight-story fireproof building made of steel-reinforced concrete and faced with white enameled brick. The waiting room would be 104 feet by 63 feet, and the building would be large enough to contain all of the departments of the GC&SF. An addition to the building was made in 1932, which included another eight-story building and an eleven-story tower. The company planned to spend $35,000 on remodeling the old building so that it would match the new structure. GC&SF also boasted of a new electric boiler plant, which would heat the entire building. In 1937, AT&SF purchased the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railway from SLSF and immediately leased it to GC&SF, thus gaining a valuable and shorter route to Fort Worth from the west and from the livestock-raising areas of the Edwards Plateau than the previous routing via Temple. After World War II, AT&SF worked to expand its freight lines. The company used special trains to haul specific