Railroads
East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad
"East-tennessee-virginia-and-georgia-rr1" by Matthews-Northrup Company - Library of Congress - Geography and Map Division. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - Link
The East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad Company was incorporated under special act of Tennessee on February 19, 1836 as the Hiwassee Rail Road Company.
The company built 81.23 miles of 5 ft gauge railroad line between Dalton, Georgia and Loudon, Tennessee in 1852, 287 miles of railroad line between Loudon, Tennessee and Knoxville, Tennessee in 1855 and 29.12 miles of railroad line between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Cleveland, Tennessee in 1859.
East Tennessee and Georgia Company received a large amount of funds from sale of bonds of the State of Tennessee to aid in rehabilitation of the line after the American Civil War. The State held a statutory lien on the property as security for this debt.
East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad Company was consolidated with East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad Company on November 26, 1869 to form East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad Company.
The property eventually became part of Southern Railway Company on July 7, 1894, through its acquisition of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway Company.
In Greenback In the late 1880s, the Knoxville Southern Railroad began building a rail line connecting Knoxville with Blue Ridge, Georgia.
The Knoxville Southern was purchased by the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad, which was in turn purchased by the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railroad in 1895. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N), which was building a rail line between Cincinnati and Atlanta, purchased the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern in 1902. The L&N's Greenback Depot, completed in 1914.
