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History

South Carolina from A to Z

“B” is for Blue Ridge Railroad

By Walter Edgar

Published June 23, 2015 at 5:34 AM EDT

“B” is for Blue Ridge Railroad. Chartered in 1852, the blue Ridge Railroad revived earlier plans to connect Charleston to the Midwest by rail. The proposed route commenced at Anderson, then passed through Pendleton and the new settlement of Walhalla before passing into Rabun County, Georgia, on its way to Knoxville, Tennessee, and points beyond. The new town of Belton would arise at the junction of the Blue Ridge with the Greenville and Columbia Railroad. Primarily supported by Charleston merchants and built by Irish and German immigrants and local slaves, the railroad was intended to return the port city to commercial prominence. Funding was problematic and in 1859 the company was forced to cease construction. The Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel was the most famous portion of the costly and unfinished Blue Ridge Railroad.

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South Carolina from A to Z history

Walter Edgar

Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.

See stories by Walter Edgar