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An Early Attempt To Connect Pensacola Throughout the South
Nice example of this scarce map and report, showing the transit lines by Rail and Canal to Pensacola in 1856.
The company's ambitious plan was to create lines extending to Nashville, Tuscaloosa, Mobile, Columbus (GA), Brunswick (GA), Charleston and Savannah.
The map illustrates the lines of the Alabama & Florida in the year it acquired 400,000 acres of land to complete the line from between Pensacola and Montgomery, Alabama.
The vast majority of the lines shown in red on the map are noted as either "Proposed" or "In Progress".
Alabama & Florida Railroad Company of Florida
The Alabama and Florida Railroad Company of Alabama (also known as the Alabama & City of Montgomery Railroad Company) received land between from the United States government between Mobile and Montgomery in 1836. However, the company fell victim to the panic of 1837 and construction was not begun until 1850.
In May of 1856 the company secured a land grant of nearly 400,000 acres to complete the railroad between Pensacola, Florida and Montgomery, Alabama. The track was completed between the two cities in 1861.
Following the Civil War the company was forced to take a government loan to buy new locomotives and boxcars to continue operations in the region. By 1868 the Mobile & Great Northern Railroad Company and the Alabama & Florida Railroad Company merged to form the Mobile and Montgomery Railroad. The track between Mobile and Pensacola was finally completed in 1872.
On January 21, 1880, the property of the Mobile and Montgomery Railroad Company, including its right of way and railroad, was transferred to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company.
Rarity
We were unable to locate another example of either the map or the report.
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