page_title: History of Knoxville, Tennessee
section_title: The Arrival of the Railroads
hierarchical_section_title: History of Knoxville, Tennessee / Antebellum Knoxville / The Arrival of the Railroads
caption_attribution_description: English: The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia railyard at the intersection of Gay Street (lower right) and Depot Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, as it appeared in 1871. The roundhouse is now the location of the Southern Terminal. The building opposite the roundhouse is believed to be the building at 207 West Jackson Ave., currently occupied by Heuristic Workshops.
context_page_description: The History of Knoxville, Tennessee, began with the establishment of James White's Fort on the Trans-Appalachian frontier in 1786. The fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790, and the city, named for Secretary of War Henry Knox, was platted the following year. Knoxville became the first capital of the State of Tennessee in 1796, and grew steadily during the early 19th century as a way station for westward-bound migrants and as a commercial center for nearby mountain communities. The arrival of the railroad in the 1850s led to a boom in the city's population and commercial activity.
  While a Southern city, Knoxville was home to a strong pro-Union element during the secession crisis of the early 1860s, and remained bitterly divided throughout the Civil War. The city was occupied by Confederate forces until September 1863, when Union forces entered the city unopposed. Confederate forces laid siege to the city later that year, but retreated after failing to breach the city's fortifications during the Battle of Fort Sanders.
  Following the war, business leaders, many from the North, established major iron and textile industries in Knoxville.
context_section_description: As early as the 1820s, Knoxville's business leaders viewed railroads— then a relatively new form of transportation— as a solution to the city's economic isolation.  Led by banker J. G. M. Ramsey (1797–1884), Knoxville business leaders joined calls to build a rail line connecting the city to Cincinnati, Ohio to the north and Charleston, South Carolina to the southeast, which led to the chartering of the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad (LC&C) in 1836.  The Hiwassee Railroad, chartered two years later, was to connect this line with a rail line in Dalton, Georgia.
  In spite of Knoxvillians' enthusiasm (the city celebrated the passage of a state appropriations bill for the LC&C with a 56-gun salute in 1837), the LC&C was doomed by a financial recession in the late 1830s, and construction of the Hiwassee Railroad was stalled by lack of funding amidst continued sectional bickering.  The Hiwassee was rechartered as the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad in 1847, and construction finally began the following year.  The first train rolled into Knoxville on June 22, 1855, to great fanfare.
  With the arrival of the railroad, Knoxville expanded rapidly.  The city's northern boundary extended northward to absorb the tracks, and its population grew from about 2,000 in 1850 to over 5,000 in 1860.  Local crop prices spiked, the number of wholesaling firms in Knoxville grew from 4 to 14, and two new factories— the Knoxville Manufacturing Company, which made steam engines, and Shepard, Leeds and Hoyt, which built railroad cars— were established.  In 1859, the city had four hotels, at least seven factories, six churches, three newspapers, four banks, and over 45 stores.
caption: The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia rail yard at the intersection of Gay Street (lower right) and Depot Street, as it appeared in 1871; the roundhouse has since been demolished and replaced by the Southern Terminal
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