COVER -- TITLE -- COPYRIGHT -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- 1 SLOW, DIFFICULT, AND DANGEROUS TRAVEL -- 2 A RAIL ROAD? -- 3 KNOXVILLE, 1836 -- 4 SURVEYS, FINANCES, AND CONSTRUCTION -- 5 CRISIS AND CONTRACTION -- 6 WHAT HAPPEND -- 7 WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED -- NOTES -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.

Among the grand antebellum plans to build railroads to interconnect the vast American republic, perhaps none was more ambitious than the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston. The route was intended to link the cotton-producing South and the grain and livestock growers of the Old Northwest with traders and markets in the East, creating economic opportunities along its 700-mile length. But then came the Panic of 1837, and the project came to a halt. H. Roger Grant tells the incredible story of this singular example of "railroad fever" and the remarkable visionaries whose hopes for connecting North and South would require more than half a century-and one Civil War-to reach fruition.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.