A HISTORY OF RAIL TRAVEL “Toccoa City,” as it was known in the Nineteenth Century, was
To promote the history of rail travel in Toccoa, the City of Toccoa
created in 1874 as a stop along the Atlanta & Richmond Air
built a Railway Viewing Platform in 2017, the only dedicated one
Line Railway. Toccoa was chosen predominantly due to its
of its kind on an Amtrak line in the State of Georgia. It serves as a
proximity to the beautiful Toccoa Falls. According to Images
beautiful and relaxing atmosphere to watch the trains, read a book,
of America: Toccoa, by Angela Ramage and Kelly Vickers, it’s
or enjoy a picnic with the family.
no surprise then, “that the very first businesses established” in Toccoa were hotels and livery stables, all used to support the
Whether you’ve traveled in a club car on the Crescent in the
growing railroad in the community.
mid-Twentieth Century (or today!), or enjoy the thunderous clap as a Norfolk Southern train hauls hundreds of tons of cargo through
By 1894, the Atlanta & Richmond Line became part of the Southern Railway, and to this day, it operates multiple trains out of Toccoa daily as part of the Norfolk Southern Railway.
Downtown Toccoa, rail travel made Toccoa what it is. And we’re thankful for that.
As Toccoa grew, so too did its prominence in the region. During the 1940s, soldiers arrived daily via the railroad to begin their training at Camp Toccoa, the first paratrooper training facility in America that became home to the men of Easy Company, later recognized on HBO’s Band of Brothers. Even as late as the 1970s, the railroad was shipping out thousands of caskets from the Toccoa Casket Company, which was the largest supplier of caskets to the U.S. Military until the end of the Vietnam War. As long as Amtrak has operated the Southern Crescent from New York City to New Orleans, Toccoa has been a stop along the line. In fact, Toccoa is one of only three Amtrak stops in the State of Georgia, and Amtrak runs through the city twice daily.
Norfolk Southern Railway LIVING ON MAIN STREET • 27
