Overview
In 1854, when the Nashville and Chattanooga Railway was completed, John
C. Calhoun and a party of capitalists from Charleston arrived in Chattanooga.
They were received with a great deal of enthusiasm. The Memphis and Charleston
Railroad, under construction eastward from Memphis, reached Stevenson
AL, in early 1855. From Stevenson the trains ran to Chattanooga on the
tracks of the Chattanooga and Nashville Railway.
The mayor of Charleston, ex-Secretary John C. Calhoun, and other citizens
of South Carolina made a second visit in May 1857 to celebrate the entrance
of the Memphis and Charleston into Chattanooga. It was thought by the people
of Charleston that all western cotton would go to Charleston for export, but
in time New Orleans became the principal cotton port. The Mayor of Chattanooga,
E. G. Pearl, welcomed the delegation and the Mayor of Charleston made an
address. The sea water brought from Charleston was poured into the Tennessee
river to symbolize "marrying the river to the sea".
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