 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Charleston, South Carolina |
| Locale | South Carolina |
| Dates of operation | 1827–1843 |
| Successor | South Carolina Railroad |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 5 ft (1,524 mm) |
The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was a railroad in South Carolina that operated independently from 1830 to 1844. One of the first railroads in North America to be chartered and constructed, it provided the first steam-powered, scheduled passenger train service in the United States.[1]
Chartered under act of the South Carolina General Assembly of December 19, 1827, the company operated its first 6-mile (9.7 km) line west from Charleston, South Carolina in 1830. The railroad ran scheduled steam service over its 136-mile (219 km) line from Charleston, South Carolina, to Hamburg, South Carolina, beginning in 1833.[2] Some sources referred to the railroad informally as the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad, a reference to its end points, but that was never its legal name. In 1839, The Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company,[3] which had built no track of its own, gained stock control of The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, which continued to operate under that name. In 1844, The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company merged with the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company. The merged company changed its name to South Carolina Railroad Company under an act of the South Carolina legislature dated December 19, 1843.
- ^ Mauldin, G. E. (1928). "South Carolina Canal and Rail Road". The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin (17): 70–80. ISSN 0033-8842. JSTOR 43504505.
- ^ Ulrich Bonnell Phillips (1908). Transportation in the Ante-bellum South: An Economic Analysis. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. pp. 148–153.
- ^ "The" was part of the corporate name of both this company and The South Carolina Rail Road Company. See Southern Ry. Co., Volume 37, Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Reports, November 6, 1931, p. 521. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1932.