Chattanooga Railroads

Overview Chattanooga Railroads

Chattanooga South
In 1836 the Georgia legislature passed an act initiating the Western and Atlantic Railway to connect the Augusta to Athens GA railway and the Savannah to Macon GA railway to central Georgia and then to the Tennessee river at Chattanooga to allow river access to the Mississippi and the west. The W&A RR reached Chattanooga in 1851. The W & A RR is shown on the 1874 map above in light green.

Chattanooga North
Col. Whiteside, of Chattanooga, and Vernon K. Stevenson, of Nashville, conceived a plan to build the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad to connect the central portion of Tennessee to the southeast via the W&A. Col. Whiteside, who was a member of the legislature, worked to get the state to charter the N&C RR railroad in 1845. Through the combined efforts of both men, the railroad was funded, constructed and completed to Bridgeport, AL in February 1851. The freight was transported on the Tennessee River via boat until the final track was completed through the mountains to Chattanooga on February 11, 1854. No scrip is known on the N & C RR. The N & C is shown in black on the map above.

Chattanooga West
The Memphis and Charleston Railroad under construction eastward from Memphis reached Stevenson, AL, in early 1855. From Stevenson the trains ran along the N&C RR to Chattanooga connecting east and west Tennessee. The Memphis & Charleston is shown in blue on the map above.

Chattanooga East
The Hiwassee Railroad was chartered in 1850 to connect Knoxville to Cleveland, TN. It was extended from Cleveland to Dalton, GA and extended from Knoxville to Bristol and was then re-chartered the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad. Traffic from Chattanooga was routed through Dalton on the A&W RR to Cleveland, Knoxville and Bristol, TN. A direct route from Chattanooga to Cleveland was completed in September of 1859 once the tunnel through Missionary Ridge was finished. The E TN & GA is shown in orange on the map above. The E TN & GA was extended into VA and renamed the E TN VA & GA RR which linked Richmond with Chattanooga.

Chattanooga Southwest
The Wills Valley Railroad Company was chartered in Alabama in February 1852 to connect Gadsden, AL to the N&C RR to Nashville north and Chattanooga east. By 1860 the Wills Valley RR completed 12 miles of track from Trenton, GA to the N&C RR at Wauhatchie and then on the N&C to Chattanooga or Nashville. The track was completed from Trenton to Gadsden and extended to Birmingham and Meridian MS after the Civil War and re-chartered the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad. The Wills Valley RR and its extension the AL & Chattanooga is shown in red on the map above. The AL & Chattanooga is not named on the map because it was in bankruptcy in 1874 when the map was printed although it reopened thereafter.