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The Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railroad
[Sources differ on the use of ''Railroad'' vs ''Railway'' in the official name of the company.] (the GF&A), known as the Sumatra Leaf Route, and colloquially as the Gopher, Frog & Alligator was a -long
railroad from
Richland, Georgia to
Carrabelle, Florida.
It was founded in 1895 as a logging railroad, the Georgia Pine Railway.
The northern and southern ends of the railroad have been abandoned, but the section from Cuthbert, Georgia, to Tallahassee, Florida, remains in use by various railroads.
History
Construction and early years
Hannibal Kimball promoted the Bainbridge, Cuthbert and Columbus Railroad to run north-to-south through southwest Georgia in 1869. Although work began on construction in 1870, it was never completed, and in 1872 the project was abandoned amidst financial problems and bond endorsement issues that stirred allegations of impropriety against Kimball. During the 1880s, attempts were made to revive the railroad, with some activity taking place in the middle of that decade, but this too came to nothing.
Finally, in 1895 local entrepreneur J. D. Williams laid rails on part of the route creating the Georgia Pine Railroad connecting
Bainbridge to
Arlington. The railroad had only been intended for logging, but since it provided an additional rail route from Georgia into Florida and connected with other railroads, traffic increased.
By 1898, the railroad was renamed the Georgia Florida and Alabama Railroad
and by 1901, it had been extended north to
Richland.
In 1902, the GF&A completed the section from Tallahassee to Bainbridge.
Tallahassee to Carrabelle
In 1906, the Georgia Florida and Alabama Railway purchased the Carrabelle, Tallahassee & Georgia Railroad (CT&G), which ran from Tallahassee south to
Carrabelle
Carrabelle is a city in Franklin County along Florida's Panhandle, United States. The population was 2,778 as of the 2010 census. Carrabelle is located east of Apalachicola at the mouth of the Carrabelle River on the Gulf of Mexico.
Geography
C ...
on the
Gulf of Mexico. The CT&G from Carrabelle north was first chartered as the Thomasville, Tallahassee and Gulf Railroad in 1883. Construction began from Carrabelle to the
Sopchoppy River
The Sopchoppy River is a minor river in the Florida Big Bend. A tributary of the Ochlockonee River, it is approximately in lengthBoning, Charles R. 2007. ''Florida's Rivers''. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, Inc. and nearly entirely within ...
, but it stopped there since the company could not obtain funding to build a bridge over the river.
The line was reorganized as the Augusta, Tallahassee and Gulf Railroad in 1889. It was then purchased by William Clark who owned 175,000 acres of pine lands near the railroad. Clark reincorporated the line as the Carrabelle, Tallahassee & Georgia Railroad on January 5, 1891. Construction was complete to Tallahassee by October 1893.
CT&G also had stops at
Hilliardville,
Crawfordville, MacIntyre, and
Lanark (site of an elegant casino/hotel). From Carrabelle, the
paddle steamer ''Crescent City'', owned by the CT&G, made daily round trips to
Apalachicola, to which there was no road or rail access at the time.
Once the Georgia Florida and Alabama Railroad acquired the CT&G, the GF&A reached its greatest extent from
Richland, Georgia to
Carrabelle, Florida, a distance of 180 miles.
Image:Carrabele Tallahassee Georgia Railroad n038653.jpg, CT&G train approaching Tallahassee in 1895
Image:Carrabelle Tallahassee Georgia Railroad rc12343.jpg, Steamer Crescent City at terminus in Carrabelle in 1895
Image:Carrabelle Tallahassee Georgia Railroad c00012.jpg, Terminus at Carrabelle in 1898
Later Years
The GF&A was leased to the
Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1927. The Seaboard went into
receivership at the end of 1930, and the lease was revoked in 1931. The Seaboard was reformed after receiving government loans, and it agreed to operate, but not lease the GF&A. In 1944, the court that was overseeing the Seaboard's receivership authorized the company to purchase 90% of the GF&A's bonds.
In 1948, the line was abandoned from Carrabelle to Tallahassee.
The Seaboard Air Line became part of
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
by 1980. In 1983, the former GF&A line north of Bainbridge was sold off to the
South Carolina Central Railroad, and in 1989 it became part of the
Georgia Southwestern Railroad.
In 1997, the portion of the GF&A route from Richland south to Cuthbert was abandoned,
and in 2002 the
Georgia Department of Transportation
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is the organization in charge of developing and maintaining all state and federal roadways in the U.S. state of Georgia. In addition to highways, the department also has a limited role in developin ...
acquired the remaining Cuthbert to Bainbridge section. The Georgia Southwestern remains the operator of the line.
Route
The northern terminus of the line was at Richland, where it met the
Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway
The Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway (SA&M) was a historic railroad located in the U.S. states of Georgia and Alabama. SA&M was built in the 1880s running between Montgomery, Alabama and Lyons, Georgia. It would be completed to Savannah, ...
and the
Columbus Southern Railway. It ran almost due south through
Cuthbert
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Nor ...
and
Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
to reach Arlington, where it crossed the
Central of Georgia Railway
The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was cons ...
. It continued through
Colquitt and
Bainbridge before crossing the
Flint river
The Flint River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 15, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Georgia. The river drains of western Georgia, flowing south from the u ...
and entering
Florida. It continued through
Sopchoppy
Sopchoppy is a city in Wakulla County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Tallahassee, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 457 at the 2010 census. As of 2018, the population was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to b ...
and Tallahassee and on to its southern terminus in Carrabelle on the Florida Gulf Coast.
Today
The Cuthbert-Bainbridge segment is now owned by the
Georgia Department of Transportation
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is the organization in charge of developing and maintaining all state and federal roadways in the U.S. state of Georgia. In addition to highways, the department also has a limited role in developin ...
and operated by the
Georgia Southwestern Railroad.
The segment from Bainbridge to
Attapulgus, Georgia, is owned by CSX. It operates as their
Bainbridge Subdivision.
The Attapulgus-Tallahassee segment is owned by the
Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad.
Currently, the line's milepost numbers begin in Tallahassee at 52 and increase from there. This is due to the fact that the numbering still reflects the line's full length to Carrabelle, which was mile 0 before the track between there and Tallahassee was abandoned.
A 2.4-mile part of the abandoned Tallahassee-Carrabelle segment of the GF&A is now the
Tallahassee-Georgia Florida and Alabama (GF&A) Trail in the
Apalachicola National Forest. Research work on the rail-to-trail project was done by Genesis Group.
Historic stations
Notes
References
{{Reflist
External links
"Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railwayin ''Seaboard Air Line Railway: Steam Boats, Locomotives, and History'' by Richard E. Prince, 1966; reprinted 2000.
by Donald R. Hensley, Jr., at Taplines.net - includes a good map of the GF&A prior to its acquisition by the Seaboard in 1927.
Defunct railroad companies of the United States
American companies established in 1895
American companies disestablished in 1944
Defunct Florida railroads
1895 establishments in Florida
Defunct Georgia (U.S. state) railroads
Railway companies established in 1895
Railway companies disestablished in 1944
Predecessors of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Predecessors of CSX Transportation