Blue Ridge Railway (1901)
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The Blue Ridge Railway was a 19th century railroad in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was originally chartered in 1852 as the Blue Ridge Railroad of South Carolina. Original plans were for a 195-mile line from Anderson, South Carolina, to Knoxville, Tennessee going through the mountains with as many as thirteen tunnels including the incomplete Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel. By 1859, the railroad had built between Anderson and Walhalla, South Carolina and substantial work on several tunnels had started. However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, no further work was ever completed despite efforts after the war, including one by the Black Diamond Railroad. In 1880, the Columbia and Greenville Railroad acquired the 34 miles (55 km) of track that had been laid. In 1901 the Southern Railway, successor to the Columbia and Greenville, split out the line as the Blue Ridge Railway. The Southern leased the Blue Ridge to subsidiary Carolina and Northwestern Railway on July 1, 1951, and eventually merged the company.