Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway

Stock printed by American Bank Note Company, New York. The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company operating the in the southern United States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, chartered in Nashville in December 1845 and was the first railway to operate in the state of Tennessee. It took nine years to complete the 150 miles (240 km) of line between the two cities, a task which was made much more difficult by the steep elevations of the Highland Rim and Cumberland Plateau lying in between. A tunnel of 2,228 feet (679 m) near Cowan, Tennessee was considered an engineering marvel of its time. Due to the difficulties of the terrain, this line between Tennessee cities actually crossed over into two neighboring states, Alabama and Georgia, for short distances. New towns sprang up along the line during construction, such as Tullahoma and Estill Springs.