Visitor
Streets
There are more than one hundred miles of streets, of which nearly fifty per cent are graded and macadamized. The rapid growth of the city within the past few years has opened new thoroughfares faster than improvements upon them could be made. The principal business thoroughfare is called Gay Street, South. Most of the large wholesale and retail business houses and the banks are found upon it. Excellent illustrations of this street can be seen in the illustrations.
Street Railroads
Knoxville has electric cars, horse cars and dummy lines, which reach nearly every, part of the city, and as far out as five miles, connecting with many beautiful resorts. The electric cars are of the most improved style, mainly of the Pullman build, and are propelled by Thompson-Houston motors. The power-house is very large and was built thus with a view of serving the rapidly-growing city.
Railroads
Knoxville now has three main systems of railroads. These, with their several divisions which connect with the main systems and whose through trains come into the city, form double that number. Three lines of Knoxville's railroads pierce the Western wall of the Valley into Kentucky; two lines pierce the great mountains on the East into North Carolina and Georgia, thus reaching the sea board; two lines pass out of the Valley on its Virginia end, and one reaches the outer world through the lower end.
These roads are: First, the great East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia System, running through the Valley from one end to the other, and passing through the center of Knoxville. This road, as is well known, is one of the largest systems in the United States. The main offices and shops of this great system are located here. The equipment of the road is among the very best.
In addition to the main line, which extends from one end of the valley to the other, this system operates several other roads which have their termini here. These roads are the Knoxville & Ohio, from Knoxville to Jellico on the Kentucky State line and the Walden's Ridge road, branching off at Clinton to the Cincinnati Southern. Both these roads reach the great coal fields of this section and annually transport many hundreds of trains laden with coal. Another one of the branch lines of the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia reaches out from Morristown the North Carolina State line, but its terminus is also here. Still another branch is the Knoxville & Augusta Road, reaching at present from this city to Maryville, sixteen miles south. The local business of this system is very great, while its through business, passing over its own lines to the Atlantic Coast, at Brunswick, Ga., is among the largest in the South.
Knoxville's two new railroads are the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap & Louisville Railroad and the Marietta & North Georgia Railroad. For the building of these the city subscribed one-half million dollars. The first of these two roads reaches from Knoxville to Cumberland Gap, making connection with the Louisville & Nashville system. The second reaches from Knoxville to the Georgia State line, making connection with the Marietta& North Georgia for all points South. Both these roads have their main offices here, and, although but recently built, are already doing a large freight and passenger business. The Louisville & Nashville system now reaches Knoxville over the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap & Louisville, sending through trains, with Pullman sleeper, from this city to Louisville, and connecting with all Northwestern points.
Other railroads have been surveyed to this city, parts of them have already been graded, and ere another decade has passed, Knoxville will have been fully connected with her own great territory and that of the country at large.
River Transportation
The Tennessee River at this point, although not deep enough for large boats during all seasons, does a paying business with boats of a lighter draught. There are several small steamers engaged in the freight and passenger business, while barges carrying grain, sand, marble, etc., are very numerous. The river here is spanned by four bridges, two of which are in course of construction. Two are railroad bridges and two are foot and wagon ways.
The text and HTML code of this page is copyright ©2003 to Billie R. McNamara. All rights reserved. Please direct all questions and comments to Ms. McNamara. Background graphic image was borrowed from Fred Smoot. Used by permission.