Overview
The first train passed through the Western & Atlantic Railroad’s tunnel beneath Chetoogeta Mountain on May 9, 1850, completing Georgia’s state-owned rail line between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Constructed between 1848 and 1850, the 1,477-foot-long tunnel was the first railroad tunnel built in Georgia and the South. Workers excavated from opposite ends of the mountain using hand tools, black powder, and largely enslaved labor. When the two headings met, they aligned with less than one-sixteenth of an inch variation in the centerline—a remarkable engineering achievement. The tunnel completed the final link in the Western & Atlantic Railroad, opening northwest Georgia to rail transportation and helping establish Atlanta as the South’s most important railroad hub. The tunnel remained in service until a larger parallel tunnel replaced it in 1928.
Quick Facts
- Date
- May 9, 1850