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TENNESSEE RIDGE, Tenn. – April 27, 1898, marked the beginning of a very obscure railroad that was built to serve the community’s iron industry. That day, the Tennessee & Cumberland River Railroad was incorporated, and the 13.95-mile line was built at a cost of $110,000. The railroad remained in operation until 1917. According to Elmer Sulzer’s 1975 book “Ghost Railroads of Tennessee,” the railroad owned one locomotive, one passenger coach and 13 freight cars. In Tennessee Ridge, the Tennessee & Cumberland River Railroad had a junction with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. On the other end, the railroad terminated in

Thanks to a land grant from then President Millard Fillmore, the Illinois Central was chartered in 1851 to build a line from Cairo, Ill., to Galena, Ill. And during its long history, IC made its mark on the nation as a vital transportation route through the heartland of America – the “Main Line of Mid-America.” By 1870, the network reached Sioux City and, in 1878, it reached the Gulf of Mexico. On Aug. 10, 1972, the Illinois Central merged with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad, creating the Illinois Central Gulf. In 1999 IC merged with CN, becoming the only

The Tennessee Central Railway connected Nashville, Tenn., and Hopkinsville, Ky. The railroad operated until it went bankrupt in 1968. It was taken over by the Illinois Central Gulf, which operated trains through Clarksville until the early 1980s.