Blue Ridge Railway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Blue Ridge Railway was a 19th Century railroad in the U.S. state of South Carolina.
It was originally chartered in 1852 as the Blue Ridge Railroad (not to be confused with Virginia's Blue Ridge Railroad). Original plans were for a 195-mile line from Anderson, South Carolina, to Knoxville, Tennessee going through the mountains with as many as thirteen tunnels. By 1859, the railroad had built between Anderson and Walhalla, South Carolina and substantial work on several tunnels had started. However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, no further work was ever completed despite efforts after the war, including one by the Black Diamond Railroad. In 1894, Southern Railway (US) acquired the 34 miles of track that had been laid. In 1901 the Southern reorganized the Blue Ridge, at which time the original "Railroad" name was changed to "Railway." Eventually, the Blue Ridge was fully consolidated into the Southern.