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    Blue Ridge Scenic Railway
    Blue Ridge Scenic Railway
    Blue Ridge Scenic Railway
    Ebook194 pages57 minutes

    Blue Ridge Scenic Railway

    By Melissa Beck

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    About this ebook

    Having whistled its first "all aboard" in 1988, the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway now rambles alongside the Toccoa's clear waters, treating 50,000-plus sightseers annually to verdant mountain scenery. This former Cherokee land's pioneers carved homesteads from rough terrain, doggedly hauling goods via mule wagon. The discovery of rich copper veins in nearby Polk County, Tennessee, attracted an influx of settlers, but before they could enjoy an Industrial Age boom including rail for faster freight movement, they would endure route changes, bankruptcies, and land-rights issues. As Fannin, Polk, and surrounding counties neared the 20th century, the long-anticipated railroad arrived, and with it prosperity. This is a photographic history of the copper miners, shop owners, homesteaders, and railroad workers who made these mountains their homes, often for many proud generations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateFeb 16, 2015
    ISBN9781439649411
    Blue Ridge Scenic Railway
    Author

    Melissa Beck

    Melissa Beck is a published fiction author whose many interests have led her at various times to show dogs, learn improv comedy, join a wool-hooking group, and run a busy needlework repair business. Born in Oak Ridge in the East Tennessee Valley, she regularly visited her grandparents in the Smokies. Melissa says the hills are in her blood, and she hopes to retire soon to her cabin in Fannin County, Georgia.

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      Book preview

      Blue Ridge Scenic Railway - Melissa Beck

      Authority

      INTRODUCTION

      In the early part of the 19th century, the United States had noted Britain’s successful railroad system and started to develop its own. By 1830, however, only 23 miles of track had been laid in this country. Railroads were in their infancy, yet the need for more rapid and dependable transportation excited government legislators and investors and inspired civil engineers and surveyors. In a relatively short time, these interested parties would combine to create a transportation system that would take off running.

      The first railroads in Georgia appeared in the mid-1830s and ran out of Athens, Augusta, Macon, and Savannah, which was one of the most populated cities in the United States at the time. The Central Rail Road of Georgia (eventually reorganized as the Central of Georgia Railway) followed a route from Savannah to Macon, while the Georgia Railroad extended from Augusta to Athens. The Monroe Railroad (later the Macon & Augusta Railroad) started in Macon and traveled north to Forsyth.

      In the northwestern area of the state, speculators had been considering a route toward the Tennessee River, the largest tributary of the Ohio River, where steamboats and barges were still the primary mode of transport. This goal led to the 1836 chartering of the state-owned Western & Atlantic (W&A) Railroad, which reached Chattanooga in 1851. The Western & Atlantic and Georgia Railroads converged in Atlanta at W&A’s southern terminus, which had two large stations to accommodate the traffic. Atlanta’s population growth—from 2,572 in 1850 to 21,789 in 1870—was commensurate with the rapid economic expansion created when rail systems become available.

      By 1860, the South had several short lines serving certain towns and industries, but they did not interconnect like the railroad systems in the North and Midwest. This would prove to be a hindrance to the South during the Civil War, as they relied on trains to move supplies past enemy lines.

      After the war, in the mid-1870s, Gen. William Phillips and J.B. Glover, both of whom had fought for the Confederacy, joined forces as proponents of forging northeast with the Marietta & North Georgia (M&NG) Railroad out of Marietta. Their goal was to link a war-torn, recuperating Atlanta with another growing trade hub—Knoxville. At the time, the W&A came from Atlanta as far up as Marietta and did not proceed east. Phillips and Glover raised the funds for their effort by selling stock in the M&NG, and with convict labor loaned to them by the state, they began building the railroad. However, they were thwarted by a rocky, pothole-filled right-of-way, and money ran short.

      By 1882, they had reached Canton, Georgia—24 miles from Marietta. Then, the Kinsey brothers (Joseph and Abram) of Ohio, who owned interest in a copper mine near Murphy, North Carolina, offered to invest in extending the line to Murphy. The brothers had been hauling ore with oxen and wagons and were looking for a more expedient method of transportation. Soon, they had laid track in the vicinity of what would later become known as the Hook and Eye, a track near Tate Mountain between Talking Rock and Whitestone, Georgia, that had two sharp 45-degree angles (reverse curves).

      The difficulty of laying track on the mountainous terrain pushed the Kinsey brothers to sell out to George R. Eager of Boston. Considered by some a wildcat speculator, Eager made a bet that he could get the railroad to Ellijay, Georgia, by November 30, 1883. He missed the deadline by one day, reportedly losing $10,000 in the bet. Still, he had already done better than most. Many enterprising railroad investors in the Reconstruction era petitioned for charters and, in some cases, even cleared land or laid track; however, most of them never made it past those initial stages.

      In 1886, George Eager and his Marietta & North Georgia Railroad (M&NG) reached the town of Blue Ridge, which was 82 miles from Marietta. It had taken 10 years to build the track to this point in north Georgia, and they still needed to get to Knoxville over tough mountain terrain. Knoxville Southern expanded to the south, and M&NG expanded to the north, edging closer and closer to Bald Mountain. H.G. Monroe, a former brakeman, said, This natural obstruction wasn’t large as mountains go. But it had the shape of a streamliner’s nose; its steep sides plunging headlong into the turbulent waters of the Hiwassee River. How to lower a train from these ledges to the canyon floor? Indeed, in order to follow the Hiwassee River gorge as planned, they would have to drop several hundred feet down Bald Mountain in a few miles of track.

      Eager’s engineer, C.R. Walton, created a double switchback (also called a W because of its shape) on the southeast side of the mountain. The route was six miles of scary turns, plus a difficult switchback that only four cars could navigate at a time. When tracks can be built on flat, straight ground, trains use less energy, achieve better speeds, and accrue less wear and tear. Still, the M&NG forged on, and by 1890, 13 miles of track had been laid from Blue Ridge, Georgia, to the little Appalachian community of Copperhill, Tennessee. On June 30, 1890, 10 miles north of the state line at Copperhill, the Knoxville Southern line joined with Eager’s M&NG. The next morning, the first train left from Georgia and traveled all the way to Knoxville.

      Soon after, Eager took off with his cash; the railroad, having used its funds, went into receivership. J.B. Glover oversaw the sale of the railroad to pay off creditors, and after five years, the line became known as the Knoxville & Atlanta Railroad. Henry K. McHarg then purchased the line for $956,500 and changed its name to the Atlanta, Knoxville, & Northern Railway. McHarg deemed Blue Ridge its middle terminal. Next, McHarg had Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) civil engineer T.A. Aber eliminate the dangerous double switchback by designing an 8,000-foot loop around the mountain that circles around it almost twice, ending in Farner, Tennessee. Then, Milton Smith, originally of New York, came down as part of L&N and purchased the railroad for $4 million—a tidy return on McHarg’s investment. In 1906, L&N built the New Line to Cartersville, which was 28 miles shorter and on more navigable terrain. The Hiwassee Loop was used for freight, though, allowing Copperhill’s mines to ship (on average) 1,000 cars of acid, crude copper, iron sinter, and ballast from the mines each month.

      L&N now ran North Georgia’s Old Line, the Hook and Eye, and the New Line—the more level and easy course

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