As you ride the rails on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, it’s important to aways be on the lookout as the whistle sounds…because There’s History Around Every Bend.  

The rails this scenic line runs on on have a history going back over 160 years. It all starts in 1854 with the first fifty years being a tale full of big ideas, engineering schemes, mergers, bankruptcies and acquisitions.

The railroad was nicknamed the ‘Hook and Eye Line’ because of the unique engineering necessary to overcome the steep mountainous terrain through some of the most picturesque landscape in the Smoky Mountains.

Eventually in the late 1980’s it was the end of the line. Until the rails were was brought back by Wilds L. Pierce II in the founding of the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway.

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