Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad

The Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad (formerly the Wills Valley Railroad and North-East & South-West Alabama Rail Road) was an early railroad which crossed northern Alabama from Wauhatchie, Tennessee to Meridian, Mississippi through Jones Valley.

Wills Valley Railroad

The Wills Valley Railroad was chartered in February 1852 to connect the Alabama & Tennessee River Railroad to the Georgia state line.

North-East and South-West Rail Road

The company was chartered in December 1853 with initial stock of $7 million. President L. C. Garland raised $68,000 in capital and slave labor during the summer of 1854 by speaking at a series of barbecues in communities along the route, including Livingston, Eutaw, Tuscaloosa, Jonesboro, Elyton, Ruhama Church, Hagood's Store and Trussville.

Ground was broken for the construction of the railroad at Tuscaloosa on December 7 of that year, but proceeded slowly. In 1860 the line was completed from Meridian to York, where it connected with the Alabama and Mississippi Rivers Railroad (which leased the new section and operated the first trains). Progress was ended by the onset of the Civil War.

A group of Boston investors gained control of the company after the war. Robert Jemison, Jr served as president of the railroad from 1863 to 1869. In November 1868 it was re-christened the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad

The company was sold in 1877 to a group of English investors and rechristened the Alabama Great Southern Railway.