Blue Ridge Railroad (1849–1870)

The Blue Ridge Railroad was a railroad company chartered in 1849 in South Carolina with the ambitious goal of connecting the state's interior with the western states via the Blue Ridge Mountains. The project aimed to establish a crucial link in a transcontinental rail route, facilitating trade and development.

The railroad's most challenging undertaking was the construction of a tunnel network through the Blue Ridge Mountains near Walhalla, South Carolina. This involved building four tunnels: Stumphouse Tunnel, Middle Tunnel, Lower Tunnel, and the unfinished Saddleback Tunnel. Stumphouse Tunnel, though never completed for rail traffic, became the most famous of these due to its unique construction and subsequent uses.

The Blue Ridge Railroad project was plagued by financial difficulties, engineering challenges, and the onset of the American Civil War. Construction proceeded slowly, and the war effectively halted progress. The company never achieved its intended goal of completing the line through the mountains.

Following the Civil War, efforts to revive the project proved unsuccessful. The company eventually defaulted on its debts, and the partially completed tunnels and infrastructure were left abandoned. The assets of the Blue Ridge Railroad were ultimately sold off, and the company ceased to exist around 1870. Although the Blue Ridge Railroad failed to fulfill its original vision, its legacy remains in the form of the still-existing Stumphouse Tunnel and the historical record of its bold, albeit unrealized, ambitions.