 The Terminal Railroad Association (TRA) of St. Louis, the principal one of the 38 defendants in this case, was organized in 1889 by Jay Gould and a number of the defendant railroad companies to acquire several independent terminal companies at St. Louis, Missouri, in order to combine and operate them as a unified system.The TRA acquired the St. Louis Union Station, the only existing railroad bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, "and every connecting or terminal company by means of which that bridge could be used by railroads terminating on either side of the river.