A HISTORY OF RAIL TRAVEL

“Toccoa City,” as it was known in the Nineteenth Century, was created in 1874 as a stop along the Atlanta & Richmond Air Line Railway. Toccoa was chosen predominantly due to its proximity to the beautiful Toccoa Falls. According to Images of America: Toccoa, by Angela Ramage and Kelly Vickers, it’s no surprise then, “that the very first businesses established” in Toccoa were hotels and livery stables, all used to support the growing railroad in the community.

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.

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. To promote the history of rail travel in Toccoa, the City of Toccoa built a Railway Viewing Platform in 2017, the only dedicated one of its kind on an Amtrak line in the State of Georgia. It serves as a beautiful and relaxing atmosphere to watch the trains, read a book, or enjoy a picnic with the family.

Whether you’ve traveled in a club car on the Crescent in the mid-Twentieth Century (or today!), or enjoy the thunderous clap as a Norfolk Southern train hauls hundreds of tons of cargo through Downtown Toccoa, rail travel made Toccoa what it is. And we’re thankful for that.

Norfolk Southern Railway