Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railway Company

Product Details

Intricately engraved antique stock certificate from the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railway Company dating back to the early 1900's. This document, which was printed by the American Bank Note Company, measures approximately 10 1/2" (w) by 7 1/4" (h).

This certificate's beautiful vignette features a locomotive leaving a station.

Images

You will receive the exact certificate pictured.

Historical Context

Originally incorporated in 1854 as the Ellijay Railroad after the town of Ellijay, Georgia, it was renamed the Marietta, Canton & Ellijay Railroad, and finally the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad, finally beginning construction in 1874. Beginning at the Western & Atlantic Railroad in Elizabeth (now within Marietta city limits), it connected through Blackwells, Noonday, Woodstock, Lebanon/Toonigh, Holly Springs, and Canton, taking until 1879 to do so. It continued to Marble Cliff in 1883, and to Ellijay in 1884. In 1887, it was completed to Murphy, and merged with the Georgia and North Carolina Railroad, causing another slight name change to the Marietta and North Georgia Railway, rather than the previous "Railroad".

It was converted from three-foot narrow gauge to standard gauge as far north as Blue Ridge, Georgia in 1890, and from there to Murphy in 1897. This also allowed a continuous route from Atlanta, Georgia to Knoxville, Tennessee, with the completion of a route southward from the wye at Etowah/Delano by the Knoxville Southern Railroad, actually a subsidiary of the M&NGR. This route runs eastward along the Hiwassee River to Farner, Tennessee, then south along the Tennessee side of the North Carolina state line, through Ducktown, then the twin towns of Copperhill, Tennessee and McCaysville, Georgia, then through Epworth before meeting the existing line at Blue Ridge.

In order to meet the construction deadline, engineers designed a double switchback, which required that railcars be brought up or down four at a time to and from the river elevation to make the turn out of or into the valley. Extremely inefficient and time-consuming, it was replaced by what is known as the Hiwassee Loop, taking trains nearly twice around Bald Mountain, with the train passing over its own tracks on a wooden trestle. This gave the route the "Hook and Eye Line" nickname, with the "hook" being another switchback in Georgia, and the eye being the loop. (Both were later bypassed before ceasing original operations.)

Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1902, which gave the L&N a complete route from Atlanta to Cincinnati via Knoxville. L&N moved its Atlanta division headquarters to Etowah, where the train station now serves as a museum owned by the city.