East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway

East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway

1890 map of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway
Locale	Southeastern United States
Dates of operation	1869–1894
Predecessor	East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad
Successor	Southern Railway
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Previous gauge	5 ft (1,524 mm) American Civil War era and converted to 4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm) in 1886

The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad (ETV&G) was a rail transport system that operated in the southeastern United States during the late 19th century. Created with the consolidation of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad in 1869, the ETV&G played an important role in connecting East Tennessee and other isolated parts of Southern Appalachia with the rest of the country, and helped make Knoxville one of the region's major wholesaling centers. In 1894, the ETV&G merged with the Richmond and Danville Railroad to form the Southern Railway.

While efforts to establish a railroad in East Tennessee began in the 1830s, financial difficulties stalled construction until the late 1840s. The East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad was built between 1852 and 1859, connecting Knoxville, Tennessee with Dalton, Georgia. The East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad was built between 1850 and 1856, connecting Knoxville with Bristol, Tennessee. Knoxville financier Charles McClung McGhee formed a syndicate which purchased both lines to form the ETV&G in 1869, and largely through McGhee's efforts, the new ETV&G bought out numerous other rail lines across the region. By 1890, the ETV&G controlled over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of tracks in five states.

Throughout the first half of the 19th century, East Tennessee struggled to overcome the economic isolation created by its natural barriers, namely the Blue Ridge Mountains on the south and east and the Cumberland Plateau on the north and west. Shortly after the advent of railroads in the 1820s, the region's business leaders began discussing railroad construction as a way to relieve this isolation. In the mid-1830s, several businessmen, among them Knoxville physician J. G. M. Ramsey, planned and promoted a line connecting Cincinnati and Charleston (which would have passed through East Tennessee), but the Panic of 1837 doomed this initiative.