Central of Georgia Railway
railroad constructed to join Macon, Georgia, and Savannah, Georgia
The Central of Georgia Railway (reporting mark CG; abbreviated CofG) was a railroad in Georgia, United States, that was active from 1895–1963. It started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was constructed to join the Macon and Western Railroad at Macon, Georgia, in the United States, and run to Savannah. This created a rail link from Chattanooga, on the Tennessee River, to seaports on the Atlantic Ocean. It took from 1837 to 1843 to build the railroad from Savannah to the eastern bank of the Ocmulgee River at Macon; a bridge into the city was not built until 1851.
The company was purchased by the Southern Railway in 1963, and subsequently became part of Norfolk Southern Railway in 1982.
Despite the similarity between the names, neither the Georgia Central Railway or Georgia Railroad have ties with the Central of Georgia Railway.
Acquisitions
Over the years, this railroad steadily acquired other railroads by either lease or purchase:
Augusta and Savannah Railroad 1862
Augusta and Waynesboro Railroad 1857
Eatonton Branch Railroad 1855
Milledgeville and Eatonton Railroad 1855
Milledgeville and Gordon Railroad 1855
Mobile and Girard Railroad 1886
Girard Railroad 1857
Savannah and Tybee Railroad 1890
Savannah and Western Railroad 1890
Chattanooga, Rome and Columbus Railroad 1891
Rome and Carrollton Railroad 1887
Columbus and Rome Railroad 1888
Columbus and Atlanta Air Line Railroad 1879
North and South Railroad of Georgia 1877
Columbus and Western Railroad 1888
Savannah and Memphis Railroad 1880
East Alabama Railroad 1888
East Alabama and Cincinnati Railroad 1880
Savannah, Griffin and Northern Alabama Railroad 1890
Southwestern of Georgia Railroad 1869
Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad 1879
Muscogee Railroad 1868
Vicksburg and Brunswick Railroad 1879
Southwestern Railroad 1869
Upson County Railroad 1891
Barnesville and Thomaston Railroad 1860
Corporate history
In 1888, the Richmond Terminal Company, a Virginia holding company, gained control of the Central. The financial problems of the parent company forced the CofG into bankruptcy, and it was sold at foreclosure three years later, being reorganized as the Central of Georgia Railway on November 1, 1895.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Central of Georgia Railway” is railroad constructed to join Macon, Georgia, and Savannah, Georgia. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Central, Georgia and Railway, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “railroad constructed to join Macon, Georgia, and Savannah, Georgia” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2944435. VIAF identifies the subject as 150193234. The Library of Congress control number is n87873261. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1895, 1963, 1833 and 1837.
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This entry incorporates text from “Central of Georgia Railway” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.