On This Date, Something Happened: Memphis' First Railroad
On This Date, Something Happened: Memphis' First Railroad
Before there were six lanes of car traffic on Union Avenue, there were trains.
West Tennessee's first railroad ran along what is now Union Ave., and the first depot stood where the Commercial Appeal's offices are now.
"Organized in 1835, the LaGrange and Memphis Railroad operated the first train from Memphis 4 1/2 miles on March 29, 1842, on the present roadbed of the Southern Railway. The depot which was destroyed by fire February 1, 1853, was located here. The La Grange and Memphis Railroad and the depot were acquired by the Memphis and Charleston Railroad about 1846. The Southern Railway succeeded the Memphis and Charleston."
It's not the original train line, but it's quite fitting that there are train tracks that run next to (and in front of) the CA's building for the trains that deliver blank newsprint.
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Suzanne Tagg
Love your blog and that you include Memphis History! To add to the rail road story, The Memphis and Charleston Rail Road was the FIRST rail road in the contry to connect the mighty Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean! Also, the year the Memphis and Charleston connected Memphis to the "suburbs" was 1853 and cotton sales increased about a thousand fold for the area, meaning more money and the beginning of booming economic times for Memphis!!!
October 5, 2011 12:37pm
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