Western & Atlantic Railroad This 137-mile line between Atlanta and Chattanooga was built in 1841–50 by the State of Georgia at a cost of almost five million dollars. Surveys for the line began in 1837, and the first train ran from Marthasville (Atlanta) to Marietta on December 23, 1842. The locomotive had to be hauled by wagon from Madison, which was at the time the western end of the Georgia Railroad. Regular service on the W&A did not begin until 1845. The Georgia Railroad finally reached Atlanta in September of 1845, followed by the Macon & Western the following year. In 1854, the Atlanta & West Point opened a fourth line into town, coming in from the southwest. Favorable topography had given Georgia an advantage over the Carolinas and Virginia in building a railroad to the west. The Blue Ridge mountains, such a formidable barrier to the north, came to an end in northeastern Georgia, leaving only a few minor ridges and scattered monadnocks in the Piedmont. North of the Etowah River was a series of long, mostly parallel ridges lying across the W&A's intended route, but by following the streams that cut through them in key places, the railroad could avoid steep grades. Only one tunnel was needed, at Chetoogeta Mountain near Dalton. A few miles southeast of Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge stood as a significant barrier, but it was bypassed by going around its north end. The result was that the W&A entered the city from the northeast rather than directly from the south. Once complete, the W&A became a key link in the chain of Southern railroads connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. It was the foundation for Atlanta’s emergence as a rail center. It was the Western & Atlantic Railroad that gave birth to Atlanta, and the city's first official seal commemorated that fact. By the time of the Civil War, the W&A had 46 woodburning locomotives, two of which were to become participants in the “Great Locomotive Chase” of April 1862. It played a major role in the Atlanta Campaign and its loss to the South in 1864 was a serious blow to the Confederacy’s hopes of ultimate victory. Like many Southern railroads, the W&A suffered extensive damage during the war. In 1870, the road and rolling stock were leased for 20 years to a corporation headed by former Governor Joseph E. Brown and made up primarily of the officers of the W&A's connecting roads. W&A locomotive Acworth, a "ten-wheeler." (From Illustrated Catalogue of Locomotives, Baldwin Locomotive Works, 2nd Edition, 1881. Online at Internet Archive here). In the 1889 edition of The Official Railway List, the W&A reported operating 55 locomotives, 41 passenger cars, and 1,332 freight and miscellaneous cars. In 1890, the W&A was leased to the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Railway. Owned by the state since its construction, the line is currently under a long-term lease to NC&St.L successor CSX Transportation.   Maps, Timetables, and Other Information: 1837 map at Library of Congress ca. 1850-55 map at North Carolina Maps 1855 mileage table (74K) 1859 timetable (80K) 1860 map (255K) 1862 locomotive roster (350K) 1863 timetable (112K) 1864 timetable, U.S. Military Railroads, at Duke University Libraries 1864 map, Atlanta to Calhoun (352K) 1864 map, Calhoun to Chattanooga (202K) 1870 timetable (102K) 1870 advertisements (501K) 1870 map at University of Alabama Map Library 1883 map (409K) 1885 map of W&A from Atlanta to Marietta (162K) 1887 birds-eye map, The Great Kennesaw Route, at Library of Congress 1891 advertisement (102K) 1906 timetable (140K) 1921 mileage table (101K) Track profile (345K) The General, famous W&A locomotive stolen by Andrews' Raiders in 1862. See Great Locomotive Chase. (From: Railway and Locomotive Engineering, December 1913). W&A roundhouse and offices in Atlanta. Photo cropped from larger image: 'Buildings of the Western & Atlantic (state) R.R. at Atlanta, Ga., Nov. 1864. These were all destroyed a few days afterwards.' Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Image available at LOC here. Suggested Reading: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. "An American State-owned Railroad: The Western and Atlantic." Yale Review, Vol. XV, No. 3. November, 1906. Online at Google Books here. James Houstoun Johnston. Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia. Atlanta: Georgia Public Service Commission, 1931. Online at HathiTrust Digital Library here. Article on the W&A at About North Georgia. Pamela J.W. Gore and William Witherspoon. Roadside Geology of Georgia. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press, 2013. Explains the role of geology in the building of the W&A as well as the later troop movements along the railroad corridor in the Civil War. From: James Houstoun Johnston, Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia, Atlanta: Georgia Public Service Commission, 1931. Online at HathiTrust Digital Library. Marietta. The W&A's tracks opened here in 1842. From: A. M. Meeker. Eliza Ross, or Illustrated Guide of Lookout Mountain. Atlanta: Franklin Steam Printing House, 1870. Online at Internet Archive here. RailGa.com. Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage. © Steve Storey Railroad History | The Depot List | Locomotives On Display | Odds & Ends | Sources & References | Home