Western and Atlantic Railroad

The Western and Atlantic Railroad is a state-owned Georgia railroad, founded on December 21, 1836 by the Georgia General Assembly as a state-sponsored project to link the port of Savannah with the Midwest, running 138 miles between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tennessee. The settlement at its terminus, called Terminus, grew into the city of Atlanta, and the line's profits helped fund Georgia's public education system in the 1850s and 1860s; it is also known for hosting the Great Locomotive Chase during the Civil War on April 12, 1862. Today it operates as an active freight line leased and run by CSX Transportation under a 2018 fifty-year lease.