The Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia (W&A) is a railroad owned by the
State of Georgia
Georgia is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee and North Carolina; to the northeast by South Carolina; to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean; to the south by Florida; and to the west ...
and currently leased by
CSX
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 trac ...
, which CSX operates in the
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the south ...
from
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, to
Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...
.
It was founded on December 21, 1836. The city of Atlanta was founded as the terminus of the W&A, with the terminus marked with the
Atlanta Zero Mile Post. The line is still owned by the State of Georgia from Atlanta to
CT Tower in Chattanooga; it is leased by
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. ...
.
The W&A Subdivision is a railroad line leased by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Georgia. The line runs from Chattanooga to
Marietta, Georgia
Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Cobb County, Georgia, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 60,972. The 2019 estimate was 60,867, making it one of Atlanta's largest suburbs. Marietta is the fourth largest ...
for a total of . At its north end, it continues south from the
Chattanooga Subdivision
The Chattanooga Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia. The line runs from Nashville, Tennessee, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for a total of . At its north end the line continu ...
of the
Nashville Division and at its south end it continues south as the
Atlanta Terminal Subdivision
The Atlanta Terminal Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of Georgia. The Atlanta Terminal Subdivision is broken up into 5 sections known as "Charts" according to the CSX Transportation Timetable #3.
Chart ...
(Chart A).
This line, originally built to
gauge
Gauge ( or ) may refer to:
Measurement
* Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments
* Gauge (firearms)
* Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire
** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...
,
is famous because of the
Great Locomotive Chase, also referred to as Andrews' raid, which took place on the W&A during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
on the morning of April 12, 1862.
Establishment
In 1836, the
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are direct ...
voted to build the Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia to provide a link between the port of
Savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
and the
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
.
The initial route of that state-sponsored project was to run from Chattanooga to a spot east of the Chattahoochee River, in present-day Fulton County. The plan was to eventually link up with the
Georgia Railroad
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
from Augusta and the
Macon and Western Railroad, which ran from Macon to Savannah. An engineer was chosen to recommend the location where the Western & Atlantic line would terminate. Once he surveyed various possible routes, he drove a stake into the ground near what is now Forsyth and Magnolia Streets. The zero milepost was later placed at that spot. In 1842, the zero milepost was moved to a spot immediately adjacent to the current southern entrance to
Underground Atlanta
Underground Atlanta is a shopping and entertainment district in the Five Points neighborhood of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States, near the Five Points MARTA station. It is currently undergoing renovations. First opened in 1969, it takes ...
.
The area developed into a settlement, known as "Terminus", literally meaning "end of the line". In 1843, the small settlement of Terminus was incorporated as the city of
Marthasville. Two years later, by act of Georgia's General Assembly, the city was renamed "Atlanta".
The railroad made significant contributions to the development of north Georgia.
Funding source for public education
In 1857,
Joseph E. Brown was elected
Governor of Georgia
The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor also has a duty to enforce state laws, the power to either veto or approve bills passed by the Georgia Legis ...
. He supported free public education for poor white children, believing that it was key to the development of the state. He asked the state legislature to divert a portion of the profits from the state-owned Western & Atlantic, to help fund the schools.
[Carole E. Scott, "Joseph E. Brown"](_blank)
About North Georgia website, 2016; accessed December 16, 2016 Most planters did not support public education and paid for private tutors and academies for their children. That resistance, and inadequate railroad income, initially thwarted governor Brown's education reform efforts. The Western and Atlantic Railroad was mismanaged at the time, and unable to produce the income Brown required to fund his public education proposal. In 1858, Governor Brown appointed
John W. Lewis
John William Lewis (October 14, 1841 – December 20, 1913) was a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from Kentucky.
Born near Greensburg, Kentucky, Lewis attended the common schools.
He was graduated from Centre College, ...
to the position of Superintendent of the state-owned railroad. Lewis had the skills of a successful businessman, and immediately undertook reforms to turn around the failing enterprise. The railroad, said to be in "dire financial straits", required the same strict economic controls Lewis had practiced in his private businesses. In the three years that Lewis ran the railroad, he was able to turn the business into a money making enterprise, paying $400,000 per year into the state treasury.
In 1861, Brown was up for re-election to a third term. It was at this time, during the re-election campaign, that
Western & Atlantic Railroad
The Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia (W&A) is a railroad owned by the State of Georgia and currently leased by CSX, which CSX operates in the Southeastern United States from Atlanta, Georgia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
It was fo ...
Superintendent John Woods Lewis, an old friend of the governor, decided to resign from the railroad. The timing could not have been worse. Fearing that Lewis' resignation would be interpreted negatively, the governor requested that Lewis keep the resignation a secret. But the resignation letter was leaked to the press, causing a rift between the two old friends. Brown wrote to Lewis saying "I did not deserve this at your hands, and I confess I felt it keenly...I do not attribute improper motives, but only say the coincidence was an unfortunate one for me".
Leasing
Through 1870, it was called the State Road, and was operated directly by the state under a
superintendent
Superintendent may refer to:
*Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank
*Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator
*Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...
appointed by and reporting to the
governor of Georgia
The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor also has a duty to enforce state laws, the power to either veto or approve bills passed by the Georgia Legis ...
. On December 27 of that year, operations were transferred to the Western & Atlantic Railroad Company, a group of 23
investor
An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...
s including Georgia's wartime governor
Joseph E. Brown, who leased it (both tracks and
rolling stock
The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles ca ...
) from the state for $25,000 per month. This expired 20 years later, when the
Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis (NC&StL) leased it for 29 years. The railroad that was handed over to the NC&StL was in very poor condition. The locomotives that were transferred consisted only of those listed on the 1870 lease as property of the State, with all of the more modern engines purchased under Gov. Brown's Western & Atlantic Railroad Company having been sold to other railroads. While most of the passenger equipment was usable, almost all of the locomotives were condemnable and all of the freight cars were scrapped. The value of the locomotives was disputed for some 20 years. A major change in the new lease in 1890 stipulated that all improvements made to the road by the lessee would become property of the state at the termination of the lease. Included in the definition of improvements were modifications to the facilities, right of way and new equipment purchased for use over that line, including passenger cars, freight cars, and locomotives. As it turned out, the NC&StL continued to hold the lease to the Western & Atlantic Railroad until it was absorbed by its parent company, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which was itself owned by the Atlantic Coast Line-one of the principal railroads in the Family Lines System and later CSX Transportation, which continues to operate the line as the Western & Atlantic Subdivision. CSXT signed the current lease on the W&A from the State of Georgia in May 1986, set to expire on December 31, 2019. On Sept 7th, 2018, the owner and CSX announced they had reached an agreement to renew the lease for 50 more years, starting in 2020 at $1 million a month, and rising annually thereafter.
After being captured by the Union in mid-1864 and until the end of the war in 1865, the line was briefly operated by the
United States Military Railroad.
Distances of depots from Atlanta (1867 list and 2008 list)
Trains departed from Atlanta at 8:50 a.m. and 7 p.m. and arrived there at 1:35 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Not much has happened in between 1867 and now, track realignments in some areas resulted in height clearances and track improvements.
Great Locomotive Chase
On the morning of April 12, 1862, the
locomotive
A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...
''
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...
'' was stopped at
Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw) so that the crew and passengers could have
breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or " ...
. During this time,
James J. Andrews and his
Union raiders (Andrews Raiders), stole the ''General''. The only damage the raiders did involved cutting telegraph lines and raising rails, although an attempt to burn a
covered bridge
A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...
failed. The train's conductor,
William A. Fuller, chased the ''General'' by foot and
handcar
A handcar (also known as a pump trolley, pump car, rail push trolley, push-trolley, jigger, Kalamazoo, velocipede, or draisine) is a railroad car powered by its passengers, or by people pushing the car from behind. It is mostly used as a railway ...
. At
Emerson, Georgia
Emerson is a city in far southern Bartow County, Georgia, United States, on highways US-41, GA-293, and I-75. The population was 1,470 at the 2010 census, an increase of 34% over the 2000 count of 1,092.
Emerson is a gateway to Red Top Mountain ...
, Fuller commandeered the ''Yonah'' and rode it north to
Kingston, Georgia. At Kingston, conductor Fuller got the ''William R. Smith'' and headed north to
Adairsville. The tracks were broken by the raiders south of Adairsville and Fuller had to run the two miles on foot.
At Adairsville, Fuller got the locomotive ''
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
'' and chased the ''General''. While all of this was happening, Andrews' Raiders were cutting the
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
wires so no transmissions could go through to Chattanooga. With the ''Texas'' chasing the ''General'' in reverse, the chase went through
Dalton, Georgia
Dalton is a city and the county seat of Whitfield County, Georgia, United States. It is also the principal city of the Dalton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Murray and Whitfield counties.
As of the 2010 census, the ci ...
, and
Tunnel Hill, Georgia.
At
milepost
A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to ...
116.3 (north of
Ringgold, Georgia
Ringgold is a city in and the county seat of Catoosa County, Georgia, United States. Its population was 3,414 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Chattanooga, Tennessee–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Ringgold was founded in 184 ...
), Andrews' Raiders abandoned the ''General'' and scattered from the locomotive just a few miles from Chattanooga. After the chase, Andrews and most of his raiders were caught. After they were found guilty, Andrews and seven members of his party were
executed
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
by
hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...
.
After the chase
When the chase was over, both engines returned to service. After the "General"'s service with the W&A was over, she retired to the
Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Union Depot in Chattanooga. In 1890, the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway overhauled the General and provided the locomotive for public events and to promote the line's Civil War history (to drum up the tourism trade) up through the 1930s. In 1962, 100 years after the chase, the L&N performed work necessary to allow the locomotive to operate under her own power for a series of appearances marking the 100th anniversary of the Andrews Raid. The premier appearance was her run from Atlanta to Chattanooga over the Western & Atlantic Railroad. After this run, the General would make excursion trips on various rail lines across the eastern US through most of the 1960s. In the late 60s, the General was to go to Kennesaw for another appearance when the City of Chattanooga officials halted it. The engine was put in storage in Louisville while a legal battle for its custody ensued. In 1971 the United States District Court confirmed the right of the railroad to dispose of the locomotive as it saw fit and it was moved to Kennesaw, Georgia (via a route bypassing Chattanooga) in 1972 where it was placed in the
Big Shanty Museum. The ''Texas'' was retired shortly after the turn of the century, and was stored on a siding. In 1911, it was moved to Grant Park and later placed in the
Atlanta Cyclorama
The Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum was a Civil War museum located in Atlanta, Georgia. Its most noted attraction was the Atlanta Cyclorama, a cylindrical panoramic painting of the Battle of Atlanta. As of December 2021, the Cyclorama is lo ...
.
Re-gauging
Prior to the Civil War, the
rail gauge
In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...
of most railroads in the South were
broad gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.
Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union ( C ...
. In 1886, the change to the Northern standard gauge of was mandated on June 1, and the W&A accomplished this along all in less than 24 hours, beginning at 1:30 p.m. on May 31 and finishing at 10 a.m. the next morning. This was done by over 400 men, prying up one rail and moving it closer to the other by exactly , leaving a compatible gauge of . The ''General'' and many other locomotives were also re-gauged at this time.
W&A in modern times
Aside from a few track realignments by the
Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway, the W&A has changed little since 1862. The most significant changes were realignment during the creation of
Lake Allatoona, with the tracks through Allatoona Pass removed. The
Etowah River
The Etowah River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 27, 2011 waterway that rises northwest of Dahlonega, Georgia, north of Atlanta. On Matthew Carey's 179 ...
bridge has also been replaced. The famed
Chetoogeta Mountain Tunnel
The Chetoogeta Mountain Tunnel () refers to two different railroad tunnels passing through Chetoogeta Mountain in Tunnel Hill, Georgia, United States.
The first tunnel, known as the Western and Atlantic Railroad Tunnel at Tunnel Hill, was compl ...
in
Tunnel Hill, Georgia, was abandoned in 1928; it was too small to accommodate the larger trains of the era, and a new tunnel was built nearby.
A marker indicating where the chase began is near the Big Shanty Museum in
Kennesaw, Georgia
Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its 1 ...
. A marker for where the chase ended is at Milepost 116.3, north of
Ringgold, Georgia
Ringgold is a city in and the county seat of Catoosa County, Georgia, United States. Its population was 3,414 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Chattanooga, Tennessee–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Ringgold was founded in 184 ...
, which is not far from the recently restored depot at Milepost 114.5. A
monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...
dedicated to Andrew's Raiders is located at the
Chattanooga National Cemetery; it has the ''General'' on top of the monument and a brief history of the great locomotive chase.
Chief executives
While under construction the road was led by the Chief Engineer and when construction was completed by the Superintendent.
Chief Engineers
*
Stephen Harriman Long
Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most pro ...
: May 12, 1837 – November 3, 1840
*
James S. Williams: 1841
*
Charles Fenton Mercer Garnett: February 7, 1842 – December 31, 1847
* William L. Mitchell: January 1, 1848 – 1852
Superintendents
*
William L. Wadley: February 2, 1852 – February 1, 1853
[Johnston, p.44]
*
Geoerge Yonge: 1853 – ?
*
John Wood Lewis: January 1, 1858 – Dec. 1860
*
John Sharpe Rowland: October 1, 1861 – September 18, 1863
*
George D. Phillips: November 5, 1863 – ?
See also
*
Chetoogeta Mountain Tunnel
The Chetoogeta Mountain Tunnel () refers to two different railroad tunnels passing through Chetoogeta Mountain in Tunnel Hill, Georgia, United States.
The first tunnel, known as the Western and Atlantic Railroad Tunnel at Tunnel Hill, was compl ...
*
List of railroads of the Confederate States of America
This is a list of Confederate Railroads in operation or used by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. See also Confederate railroads in the American Civil War. At the outset of the war, the Confederacy possessed the third ...
*
Streight's Raid
*
Western and Atlantic Depot (Dalton, Georgia)
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Building the Western & Atlantic RailroadWestern & Atlantic Railroad in the Civil WarWestern & Atlantic Depothistorical marker
State R.R. Surveyhistorical marker
* The original records of the Western & Atlantic Railroad are housed at th
Georgia Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Western Atlantic Railroad
Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War
Georgia (U.S. state) railroads
History of Atlanta
Non-operating common carrier freight railroads in the United States
Predecessors of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Predecessors of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
Railway companies established in 1836
Railway lines in Atlanta
5 ft gauge railways in the United States
Tennessee railroads
4 ft 9 in gauge railways in the United States
1836 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
American companies established in 1836
Great Locomotive Chase