Ties between railroad, city have deep roots

by Ed Speer

[Note:  This article gives a brief history of the railroad in East Tennessee.  From the Johnson City Press, Sept. 6, 2004, page 4A.]

In May 2003, the late Tom Hodge observed that "Johnson City owes its location to the railroad."  Indeed, we are frequently reminded by the sound of a horn from a passing train that Johnson City is a railroad town.

In the middle of the 19th century, a community -- and later a town -- developed around a station constructed by Henry Johnson on the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad (now Norfolk Southern).  By the end of the next century, the town that had bee named for Henry Johnson became a city of 50,000 people.

The tracks that cross the city in a southwest to northeast direction serve as a visual reminder of Johnson City's relationship with the railroad.  Though the original ties are long gone and continuous rails now support diesel-powered locomotives pulling a variety of rail cars, the Norfolk Southern trains follow a route laid out nearly 150 years ago.

The East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad Company was chartered in 1848 to construct a railway between Knoxville and the stat of Virginia; the rail line was to be located between the Holston and Nolichucky rivers, east of Bays Mountain.  That same year, the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad Company was chartered.  The latter company planned to connect Knoxville and Chattanooga with a rail line.  The lines to be built by the two companies would cross East Tennessee, connecting Atlanta with Lynchburg, VA.

In March 1851, the East Tennessee and Virginia began construction of its railway near McBee's Ferry on the Holston River (near Strawberry Plains).  (Strangely, the company did not begin construction at Knoxville.)  By the end of 1851, three miles of the line had been graded, and by the end of 1852, almost all of the railway had been put under contract.  But the next year, the company's directors decided to complete the grading of the railway between McBee's Ferry and Knoxville before the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad Company completed its line to Knoxville.

On July 4, 1855, Knoxville celebrated the completion of the East Tennessee and Georgia railway.  That same day, the East Tennessee and Virginia began laying track northward from Knoxville.  The next February, the first train reached New Market, 24 miles from Knoxville, and in August, trains began running to Russellville (now in Hamblen County).  The company decided that when the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad reached the state line (at Bristol), the East Tennessee and Virginia would begin laying tract southward from the state line.

The Virginia and Tennessee reached Bristol in the fall of 1856.  By June 1857, East Tennessee and Virginia trains were running from Bristol "to a station on the west side of the Watauga River " (probably Henry Johnson's station), and from Knoxville, trains were running northeastward to Bulls Gap.  By March 1858, trains could travel from Knoxville to Greeneville, and on May 14, 1858, the last spike was driven just west of Blue Springs (now Mosheim) in Greene County.  Ten years after the company received its charter, the East Tennessee Railroad completed its 130-mile-long railway from Bristol to Knoxville.

In 1869, the two companies merged to form the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad Company.  That company was consolidated with other railroads in 1894 to form Southern Railway Company, and in 1982, Southern Railway merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation.

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