Macon and Brunswick Railroad Company

Ran from Atlanta Junction to Brunswick, Ga. (348 miles).

Railroad company.

A charter was given to this railway in March of 1856 but construction on the line did not begin until four years later. The Civil War and its subsequent blockades also played a role in the Macon & Brunswick's construction delays. In 1871, the railroad was completed. Only two years later, the state of Georgia took over the Macon & Brunswick Railroad.

Captain S.F. Smith (Representative from Butts County--1877-79) authored a bill in the state legislature to connect Macon and Atlanta by rail. As the Macon & Brunswick was reorganized in 1880, the Legislature granted it the authority to build this line. In 1881 the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad took over the Macon & Brunswick Railroad.

The first railroad actually entered Butts County on April 12, 1882 and with it came many mills and factories along with their many products and goods. The East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad went bankrupt in 1886. The old lines were absorbed by the Southern Railway in 1894.