Nicknamed "The Hiwassee Route"[.
History
Originally incorporated in 1854 as the Ellijay Railroad after the town of
Western & Atlantic Railroad in Elizabeth (now within Marietta city limits), it connected through
Blackwells,
Noonday,
Woodstock,
Lebanon/Toonigh,
Holly Springs, and
Canton, taking until 1879 to do so. It continued to
Marble Cliff in 1883, and to Ellijay in 1884. In 1887, it was completed to Murphy, and merged with the
Georgia and North Carolina Railroad, causing another slight name change to the Marietta and North Georgia Rail
way, rather than the previous "Rail
road".
It was converted from three-foot (775mm)
before meeting the existing line at Blue Ridge.
In order to meet the construction deadline, engineers designed a double
Hook and Eye
Line" nickname, with the "hook" being another switchback in Georgia, and the eye being the loop. (Both were later bypassed before ceasing original operations.)
Most of the AK&N's stock was purchased by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1902, which gave the L&N a complete route from Atlanta to Cincinnati via Knoxville. L&N moved its Atlanta division headquarters to Etowah, where the train station now serves as a museum owned by the city.
After
having been purchased from the GNRR. The historic trestle and loop at Bald Mountain were saved by Glen Sprigs Holdings, along with the rest of the railroad from the McMinn/Polk county line all the way to the Tennessee/Georgia State Line, and then leased to the Tennessee Overhill Association.
Except for the east–west portion along the Hiwassee River, the entire route follows one road, numbered as
.
References
External links
