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The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company operating in the southern United States in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, chartered in Nashville in December 11, 1845, built to gauge〔(Confederate Railroads - Nashville & Chattanooga )〕 and was the first railway to operate in the state of Tennessee. From this link between two Tennessee cities, it gradually grew until it formed one of the important railway systems of the South by the turn of the twentieth century. ==History== The Nashville & Chattanooga Railway, predecessor to the NC&StL Railway, was organized in 1848 by a group of prominent Nashville Tennessee businessmen. By virtue of his connections to wealth from the Grundy and Bass families of Nashville, and of his vigorous promotion of a line between Nashville and Chattanooga, Vernon K. Stevenson was elected president of the line and served in that capacity for sixteen years. The first locomotive in Nashville arrived in December 1850 on the steamboat ''Beauty'' along with thirteen freight cars and one passenger car. The train made its first trip the following spring, to Antioch, Tennessee. It took nine years to complete the of line between Nashville and Chattanooga,〔 made difficult by the steep elevations of the Highland Rim and Cumberland Plateau between them. The Cowan Tunnel near Cowan, Tennessee was considered an engineering marvel of the time.〔 Due to terrain difficulties, the rail line crossed into Alabama and Georgia for short distances. Towns sprang up during construction, including Tullahoma and Estill Springs. During the Civil War the rail line was strategic to both the Union and Confederate armies. The Tennessee campaigns of 1862 and 1863 saw Union troops force the Confederates from Nashville to Chattanooga along the line of the railroad. The tracks and bridges were repeatedly damaged and repaired, and at different times carried supplies for both armies. In 1885, the railroad successfully defended itself before the Supreme Court in ''Nashville, C. & St. L. R. Co. v. United States'' from repaying postage payments for mail in 1861 that was not delivered due to the war. After the war the company purchased the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad and the Hickman and Obion Railroad to Hickman, Kentucky to reach the Mississippi River. In 1873 it was reincorporated as the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway (NC&StL) (though the company's tracks never actually reached St. Louis, Missouri in the north). In early 1877 the NC&StL bought the bankrupt Tennessee and Pacific Railroad from the state government and operated it as a connection to Lebanon, Tennessee. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, an aggressive competitor of the NC&StL, gained a controlling interest in 1880 through a hostile stock takeover that caused much rancor between the cities of Nashville and Louisville. However, the railroads continued to operate separately before finally merging in 1957. After the 1880 takeover, the NC&StL acquired branch lines in Kentucky and Alabama, and expanded from Nashville to Memphis. In 1890 the tracks reached Atlanta, Georgia, by leasing the state-owned Western and Atlantic Railroad.〔 In 1902, the L&N was acquired by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in a takeover similar to that of the NC&StL, but continued to operate as a separate company. In 1982, the L&N's corporate existence ended when it was merged into ACL's successor, the Seaboard System Railroad. After several other mergers, in 1986 the Seaboard System was renamed as CSX Transportation, which continues to use the original NC&StL route between Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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