Old Murphy Railroad Trestle

An abandoned railroad trestle in Murphy, North Carolina is shown here on a misty autumn morning. This slow-moving river is called the Valley River... more

by Debra and Dave Vanderlaan

Title

Old Murphy Railroad Trestle

Artist

Debra and Dave Vanderlaan

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

An abandoned railroad trestle in Murphy, North Carolina is shown here on a misty autumn morning. This slow-moving river is called the Valley River and feeds into the Hiwassee River right in town....
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The historically important Murphy Branch is the western most part of what was the Western North Carolina Railroad, later the Richmond and Danville, Southern Railway and today the Norfolk Southern Railway. The branch runs between Asheville, North Carolina in the east and Andrews, North Carolina in the west. It roughly follows Interstate 40 and the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway.

The railroad branch was constructed with convict labor between 1881 and 1894. Today the section of the branch between Asheville and Sylva is owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway. The tracks between Dillsboro and Andrews are owned and operated by the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, a tourist excursion railroad. Although the Murphy Branch is today divided between two separate companies, it is still a continuous rail line between Asheville and Andrews.

The tracks between Andrews and Murphy are still in place but have not been in use since the late 1980s after Norfolk Southern decided to close the leg because of a lack of freight traffic. When the railroad began eying the rest of the Murphy Branch past Dillsboro for closure the state of North Carolina stepped in and purchased the tracks to keep the right-of-way alive. It later sold the tracks to the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad which had leased them from the state for a number of years. This section of the Murphy Branch has the distinction of being the first stretch of track the state ever purchased in modern times and began a long running practice for the state of North Carolina that eventually became the state's "Rails to Trails" program which maintains railroad rights-of-way for future use.

The Murphy Branch was extremely important to Southwestern North Carolina in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as it opened up the isolated and rural mou

Uploaded

December 9th, 2012