Atlantic & Gulf Railroad Chartered in 1856, the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad traversed southern Georgia from Screven to Thomasville. At Screven, it connected with the Savannah, Albany & Gulf Railroad which provided a connection to Savannah. The railroad was the result of a compromise between competing Savannah and Brunswick companies, each of which was seeking to build a railroad from the Atlantic coast to southwest Georgia. The Savannah company (the SA&G) had much of the capital needed for its project, while the Brunswick company (the Brunswick & Florida) had little. The latter, though, had a provision in its charter which legally gave it a monopoly over much of the planned route. The solution was a compromise in which each company would build to a point in southeast Georgia from which a single new "trunk" line would proceed further west. That new line was the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad. The rails from the coast reached Blackshear in April of 1859 and Homerville about six months later. In July of 1860, the first train entered Valdosta. Thomasville was soon attained, but the Civil War halted further westward progress until 1867 when the railroad was extended to Bainbridge. During the war the A&G and the SA&G were consolidated. To assist the movement of troops and supplies, the A&G and the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad jointly built a branch line from Lawton (now DuPont), Georgia, to Live Oak, Florida, the first rail connection between the two states. Its completion, however, came too late to provide much help in the war effort. Henry Bradley Plant bought the A&G in 1879 at a foreclosure sale and renamed it the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railway. At the time it consisted of a 237-mile main line from Savannah to Bainbridge with branches adding up to a total of 350 miles of track. 1870 map (230K) 1870 timetable (260K) Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage. Copyright, Steve Storey. Railroad History | The Depot List | Locomotives On Display | Odds & Ends | Sources & References | Home