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The Tallulah Falls Railway, also known as the Tallulah Falls Railroad, "The TF" and "TF & Huckleberry," was a railroad based in Tallulah Falls, Georgia, U.S. which ran from Cornelia, Georgia to Franklin, North Carolina. It was commissioned by the Georgia General Assembly on January 27, 1854, and conducted its final run on March 25, 1961.
On January 27, 1854, The General Assembly of the State of Georgia enacted legislation for the construction of a railway linking the towns of Athens and Clayton. This railway, known as the North Eastern Railroad (Georgia), was chartered in 1856; however the outbreak of the American Civil War delayed construction. The line was chartered on October 17, 1870, and opened between Athens and Lula on September 1, 1871, a distance of 39 miles (63 km). In 1881, the railroad was sold to the Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D), a predecessor of the Southern Railway, which connected with the Northeastern at Lula. The R&D began the Clayton extension from Cornelia, 12 miles (19 km) from Lula. In 1882, it reached Tallulah Falls, 21 miles (34 km) from Cornelia. The line was projected to pass through Rabun Gap and on to Knoxville, Tennessee, but no work was done. Tallulah Falls was a popular tourist destination and at one time seventeen hotels and boarding houses catered to the trade. On October 24, 1887, the Blue Ridge and Atlantic Railroad (BR&A) was chartered by the State of Georgia, and in early 1888, bought the branch from the R&D. In 1893, however, it defaulted and a receiver was named. On March 21, 1897, a decree was entered ordering the sale of the road, and on November 7, 1897, the BR&A was sold at foreclosure. In March 1898, the Tallulah Falls Railway Company was organized to buy the BR&A and extend it to Franklin. By October 1903, 8 miles (13 km) had been added and the North Carolina State line was reached early in 1904. When Franklin was reached in June 1907, the line was 57.2 miles (92.1 km) long. However, the effort exhausted the road's resources and a receiver was appointed in January 1908. The line was reorganized and came into the control of the Southern Railway System, which let it operate independently.
The Tallulah Falls Railway again entered into receivership in 1923, under which it would operate until its closure in 1961. The railway's primary source of income had been passenger services, but tourism gradually waned, and the railway began to operate at ever greater monetary losses. In 1933, J.F. Gray, a receiver, petitioned for the railway's abandonment. However, while permission for abandonment was granted, no action was taken due to public sentiment for the railroad; it continued to operate with little to no profit until 1955. In 1948, the railroad finally switched from steam power to diesel.
The Tallulah Falls Railway appears in the opening scene of the 1951 drama I'd Climb the Highest Mountain with temporarily reinstated 2-8-0 #75 being used in the film. Later, in 1955, Walt Disney selected the railway as the location of principal photography for The Great Locomotive Chase . The rural location of the track closely resembled the setting of the actual chase, which occurred nearly 100 years earlier in the town of Kennesaw, Georgia (then called Big Shanty) along the line of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. By then, the W&A was a part of the Louisville and Nashville (L&N) and was too modern to play the part of a Civil War railroad. The decrepit condition of the TF, however, was perfect. According to railway employees, Disney was quite fond of the railway and expressed interest in purchasing it for use as an excursion line. However the Southern Railway management refused, citing an accumulated debt of $300,000 (equal to $3,277,267 today) on the part of the railway. On March 10, 1961, The Tallulah Falls Railway was ordered to be sold as scrap.
The Tallulah Falls Railway had 42 massive wooden trestles which had to be negotiated along the 58-mile (93 km) journey from Cornelia to Franklin. The shortest trestle was about 25 feet (7.6 m) in length and the longest was 940 feet (290 m). Only one trestle was made of steel and concrete. Two trestle collapses with fatalities occurred during the operation of the railway: an 1898 collapse at Panther Creek and a 1927 collapse at Hazel Creek.
Rabun County is the north-easternmost county in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,883, up from 16,276 in 2010. The county seat is Clayton. With an average annual rainfall of over 70 inches (1,800 mm), Rabun County has the title of the rainiest county in Georgia and is one of the rainiest counties east of the Cascades. The year 2018 was the wettest on record in the county's history. The National Weather Service cooperative observation station in northwest Rabun's Germany Valley measured 116.48 inches of rain during the year. During 2020, the Germany Valley NWS station reported a yearly precipitation total of 100.19 inches.
Cornelia is a city in Habersham County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,160 at the 2010 census, up from 3,674 at the 2000 census. It is home to one of the world's largest apple sculptures, which is displayed on top of an obelisk-shaped monument. Cornelia was the retirement home of baseball legend Ty Cobb who was born nearby, and was a base of operation for production of the 1956 Disney film The Great Locomotive Chase that was filmed along the Tallulah Falls Railway that ran from Cornelia northward along the rim of Tallulah Gorge to Franklin, North Carolina.
Tallulah Falls is a town in Habersham and Rabun counties in the U.S. state of Georgia near the Tallulah River. The population was 199 at the 2020 census.
Clayton is a city in Rabun County, Georgia, United States. Its population was 2,003 at the 2020 census. The county seat of Rabun County, it is in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Tallulah River is a 47.7-mile-long (76.8 km) river in Georgia and North Carolina. It begins in Clay County, North Carolina, near Standing Indian Mountain in the Southern Nantahala Wilderness and flows south into Georgia, crossing the state line into Towns County. The river travels through Rabun County and ends in Habersham County. It cuts through the Tallulah Dome rock formation to form the Tallulah Gorge and its several waterfalls. The Tallulah River intersects with the Chattooga River to form the Tugaloo River at Lake Tugalo in Habersham County. It joins South Carolina's Seneca River at Lake Hartwell to form the Savannah River, which flows southeastward into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Chattooga River is the main tributary of the Tugaloo River.
The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company also seen as "GARR", was a historic railroad and banking company that operated in the U.S. state of Georgia. In 1967 it reported 833 million revenue-ton-miles of freight and 3 million passenger-miles; at the end of the year it operated 331 miles (533 km) of road and 510 miles (820 km) of track.
Tallulah Gorge State Park is a 2,689-acre (1,088 ha) Georgia state park adjacent to Tallulah Falls, Georgia, along the county line between Rabun and Habersham Counties. The park surrounds Tallulah Gorge, a 1,000-foot (300 m) deep gorge formed by the action of the Tallulah River, which runs along the floor of the gorge. The major attractions of the gorge are the six waterfalls known as the Tallulah Falls, which cause the river to drop 500 feet over one mile.
The Great Locomotive Chase is a 1956 American adventure western film produced by Walt Disney Productions, based on the Great Locomotive Chase that occurred in 1862 during the American Civil War. Filmed in CinemaScope and in color, the film stars Fess Parker as James J. Andrews, the leader of a group of Union soldiers from various Ohio regiments who volunteered to go behind Confederate lines in civilian clothes, steal a Confederate train north of Atlanta, and drive it back to Union lines in Tennessee, tearing up railroad tracks and destroying bridges and telegraph lines along the way.
The Northeastern Railroad was chartered in 1870 by the Georgia General Assembly to meet this request by the state, and the new railroad opened its first 39 miles on September 1, 1876, from Athens, Georgia, to Lula, Georgia. A second line was opened in 1882 from Cornelia, Georgia, to Tallulah Falls, Georgia.
Lake Rabun is a twisty 835-acre (3.4 km2) reservoir with 25 miles (40 km) of shoreline located in the Northeastern corner of the U.S. state of Georgia in Rabun County. It is the third lake in a six-lake series that follows the original course of the Tallulah River. The series begins with Lake Burton as the northernmost lake, followed by Lake Seed, Lake Rabun, Lake Tallulah Falls, Lake Tugalo, and Lake Yonah. Lake Rabun was built in a deep valley located along a 10-mile (16 km) section of the Tallulah River.
Lake Burton is a 2,775 acres (11.23 km2) reservoir with 62 miles (100 km) of shoreline located in the northeastern corner of Georgia in Rabun County. The lake is owned and administered by the Georgia Power/Southern Company, but it is a public lake. Noted for the remarkable clarity of its water and surrounded by the biodiverse ecosystem of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the lake celebrated its centennial in 2020.
Hemlock Falls is a waterfall located in Rabun County, Georgia. It is located in the Tallulah Ranger District of the Chattahoochee National Forest on Moccasin Creek. The Hemlock Trail is about one mile long, beginning at Moccasin Creek State Park and following an old railroad bed.
Streetcars and interurbans operated in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., between 1890 and 1962. Lines in Maryland were established as separate legal entities, but eventually they were all owned or leased by DC Transit. Unlike the Virginia lines, the Washington and Maryland lines were scheduled as a single system. Most of the streetcar lines were built with grand plans in mind, but none succeeded financially. A combination of the rise of the automobile, various economic downturns and bustitution eventually spelled the end of streetcars in southern Maryland.
Tallulah Falls School is a private boarding and day school located in the town of Tallulah Falls, Georgia, United States, within Habersham and Rabun Counties. The school is located on a wooded campus in northeast Georgia on the southern slopes of Cherokee Mountain at the foothills of the Appalachian chain. The school was founded in 1909 by Mary Ann Lipscomb of Athens.
Tallulah Falls Lake is a 63-acre (250,000 m2) reservoir with 3.6 miles (5.8 km) of shoreline located in the Northeastern corner of Georgia in Rabun County. It is the fourth and smallest lake in a six-lake series created by hydroelectric dams operated by Georgia Power that follows the original course of the Tallulah River. The series starts upstream on the Tallulah River with Lake Burton followed by Lake Seed, Lake Rabun, Tallulah Falls Lake, Lake Tugalo and Lake Yonah. Georgia Power considers the lake full at a surface elevation of 1,500 feet (460 m).
U.S. Route 23 (US 23) in the U.S. state of Georgia, is a north–south United States highway that travels from the St. Marys River south-southeast of Folkston to the North Carolina state line, in the northern part of Dillard. At nearly 392 miles (631 km) in length, it is the longest U.S. Highway in Georgia.
U.S. Route 441 (US 441) in the U.S. state of Georgia is a 354.2-mile-long (570.0 km) north–south United States Highway through the east-central portion of the state. It travels from the Florida state line near the Fargo city area to the North Carolina state line, in the northern part of Dillard. It is a spur route of US 41, although it has no intersections with its "parent" route within the state. It does have an intersection with another spur route of US 41 however, specifically US 341 in McRae–Helena.
The Airline Belle or Air-line Belle was a steam passenger train running between Atlanta and Toccoa, Georgia, on the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway between 1879 and 1931. Its route was 93 miles (150 km) long with 39 stops including :