Sorry for the late posting of this but we have terrible, terrible internet in this campsite!

By 1861, Chattanooga, Tennessee had become one of the South’s most important rail hubs. The lines that crossed here connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Tennessee River and the Mississippi River to East Tennessee and Virginia.

To support these railroads, Chattanooga entrepreneur Robert Cravens built the East Tennessee Iron Manufacturing Company to make railroad car wheels of the very best quality and freight cars of any description.

Confederate forces controlled the city’s vital railroads until November 1863, when the Union army occupied Chattanooga. The Union army renovated and expanded the network of tracks and sidings south of town and, from here, General William Sherman gathered supplies for his summer 1864 drive to capture Atlanta.

The City of Chattaoonooga in southeastern Tennessee along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia. With an estimated population of around 180,000, it is the fourth-largest city in Tennessee.

On March 5^th, 1880 the first passenger training leaving Cincinnati for Chattanooga was nicknamed the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, pictured above. This historical occasion opened the first major link in public transportation from the north to the south. The “Choo-Choo” was operated by the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, America’s first municipal railway system.