A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies along a continuous route. Although Europe is crisscrossed by railways, the railroads within Europe are usually not considered transcontinental, with the possible exception of the historic Orient Express. Transcontinental railroads helped open up unpopulated interior regions of continents to exploration and settlement that would not otherwise have been feasible. In many cases they also formed the backbones of cross-country passenger and freight transportation networks. Many of them continue to have an important role in freight transportation and some like the Trans-Siberian Railway even have passenger trains going from one end to the other.
Bartow County is located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 108,901, up from 100,157 in 2010. The county seat is Cartersville.
The Alabama Midland Railway was incorporated in Alabama and Georgia in 1887, and built a line from Bainbridge, Georgia, to a point near Montgomery, Alabama. The route was completed in 1890. It became part of the Plant System in 1894, and in 1901 it was merged into the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway.
The Plant System, named after its owner, Henry B. Plant, was a system of railroads and steamboats in the U.S. South, taken over by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. The original line of the system was the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, running across southern Georgia. The Plant Investment Company was formed in 1882 to lease and buy other railroads and expand the system. Other major lines incorporated into the system include the Savannah and Charleston Railroad and the Brunswick and Western Railroad.
The American Civil War was the first in which large armies depended heavily on railroads to bring supplies. For the Confederate States Army, the system was fragile and was designed for short hauls of cotton to the nearest river or ocean port. The South had very little manufacturing or industrial capacity, and so during the war new parts were hard to obtain, and the system deteriorated from overuse, lack of maintenance, and systematic destruction by Union raiders.
State Route 20 (SR 20) is a 165.345-mile-long (266.097 km) state highway roughly in the shape of a capital J rotated ninety degrees to the left, which travels through portions of Floyd, Bartow, Cherokee, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Walton, Rockdale, Newton, and Henry counties in the northwestern and north-central parts of the U.S. state of Georgia. Its counterclockwise, or western terminus is at the Alabama state line in Floyd County, and its clockwise, or eastern terminus occurs at its interchange with Lower Woolsey Road southwest of Hampton in Henry County south-southeast of the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The Hartwell Railroad dates to 1878 when the company was chartered to build a 3 ft narrow gauge rail line between Hartwell and Bowersville in Hart County, Georgia. The 10-mile railroad was completed the following year. In 1898, it was reorganized as the Hartwell Railway. Southern Railway gained control of the line in 1902, had it converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge, and sold the line in 1924.
The Atlanta and Birmingham Air Line Railway (A&BAL) was a railroad line running from Atlanta, Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama. It eventually ccame under the ownership of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad.
The Augusta, Gibson and Sandersville Railroad was incorporated in 1884 and began operating from Augusta to Gibson and Sandersville, Georgia, in 1885 and 1886, respectively. In 1893, it went bankrupt and was reorganized as the Augusta Southern Railroad. The line ran as 3 ft narrow gauge until 1895.
The Augusta Southern Railroad was established on May 1, 1893, through a reorganization of the Augusta, Gibson & Sandersville Railroad.
The Cherokee Railroad is an historic railroad that operated in the U.S. state of Georgia.
State Route 293 (SR 293) is a 29.7-mile-long (47.8 km) southeast-to-northwest state highway that travels from Emerson, in Bartow County, to Rome, in Floyd County, in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. SR 293 travels along the western alignment of the historic Dixie Highway, from its southern terminus to its intersection with SR 293 Connector. The original southern terminus was with US 41 in Kennesaw, passing through Kennesaw and Acworth. This length of the roadway was originally part of US 41.
The East and West Railroad of Alabama was a railroad in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia. The railroad started out with 3 ft narrow gauge track, but it was eventually converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge track.
The Altoona and Beech Creek Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad in Pennsylvania that operated during the late ninteeth and early twentieth centuries. It carried passenger traffic from the vicinity of Altoona to Wopsononock and coal and timber from Wopsononock and Dougherty to Altoona.
The Cincinnati District is a railroad line owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway and operated by Cincinnati Eastern Railroad in the U.S. state of Ohio. The line runs from Cincinnati, Ohio, southeast to Portsmouth, Ohio, along a former Norfolk and Western Railway line. Its southeast end is at the Columbus District near Portsmouth, while its northwest end is in Mariemont, Ohio, where it meets the Indiana and Ohio Railway's Midland Subdivision and Norfolk Southern's Dayton District.
Cartersville is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, United States; it is located within the northwest edge of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 23,187. Cartersville is the county seat of Bartow County.
The Bartow County Courthouse, built in 1902, is an historic redbrick Classical Revival style county courthouse located on Courthouse Square in Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia, United States. Designed by the Louisville, Kentucky architectural firm of Kenneth McDonald & Co. together with self-taught Georgia architect J. W. Golucke, who is said to have designed 27 courthouses in Georgia and four in Alabama, it is Bartow County's third courthouse and the second one built in Cartersville. The first courthouse built in Cassville, while the county was known as Cass County, was burned by General Sherman's troops in 1864. In 1867 the county seat was moved to Cartersville and the second courthouse was built in 1873. It proved to be unsatisfactory because court proceedings had to be halted while trains passed by on the nearby railroad. In 1992 a courthouse annex known as the Frank Moore Administration and Judicial Center was completed. While the 1902 building is still used for some court purposes, most of the proceedings are held in the 1992 building.
The Old Bartow County Courthouse built in 1869 is an historic stately redbrick Italianate style building located at 4 East Church Street in Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia, United States. Built as Bartow County's second courthouse and the first in Cartersville, it proved to be unsatisfactory because court proceedings had to be halted while trains passed by on the nearby railroad. It was replaced in 1902 by the third Bartow County Courthouse located nearby. The building was then either vacant or used as a warehouse until December 2010 when it became the Bartow History Museum.
Originally, various track gauges were used in the United States. Some railways, primarily in the northeast, used standard gauge of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in ; others used gauges ranging from 2 ft to 6 ft. As a general rule, southern railroads were built to one or another broad gauge, mostly 5 ft, while northern railroads that were not standard-gauge tended to be narrow-gauge. The Pacific Railroad Acts of 1863 specified standard gauge.
The Eagles Mere Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, built in 1892 to connect the resort of Eagles Mere with the standard gauge Williamsport and North Branch Railroad at Sonestown, 8 miles (13 km) away by rail. It was leased to the connecting Williamsport & North Branch in 1901, which continued to operate it as a narrow gauge, and extended it in 1902–3 to Eagles Mere Park and a connection with the narrow gauge Susquehanna and Eagles Mere Railroad, a logging railroad. The line went through a receivership and reorganization in 1911–2, and a second in 1920, due to increasing competition with automobiles for traffic to Eagles Mere. It was reorganized again in 1922 as the Eagles Mere Railway, operating independently of the W&NB, but ended passenger service in 1923 and freight service in 1927. It was abandoned in 1928.
