“This train is bound for glory, 

Don’t carry nothing but the righteous and the holy. 

This train is bound for glory, this train.” 

—This Train (American Folk Song, 1922) 

Clark Hall: Building of The Central of Georgia Railroad 

When the first rail of the Central of Georgia Railroad was laid down in Savannah in December 1835, the city of Macon was accessible for trading primarily by horse-drawn wagon or via small boats through intermittent waterways. Completed by 1843, the rail line to Macon was the longest continuous railroad line under one management in the world. 

The history of the Central of Georgia Railroad began in desperation for many Savannahians. By 1831, cotton shipments through Savannah’s port had notably diminished because the South Carolina Railroad effectively connected northern Georgia near Augusta to Savannah’s rival port in Charleston.  

A train station located in South Carolina just across the Savannah River from the Georgian city of Augusta — in what is now a ghost town named Hamburg — made shipping cotton easier, faster and cheaper by rail to Charleston than by barge down the Savannah River to the Savannah port. 

Georgia politicians jumped into action and, in 1833, chartered what became the Central of Georgia Railroad (CGR). Still, the goal of reaching Macon was two hundred miles away, while the mechanical knowledge and engineering technology to build the rail line were largely yet unknown. 

Shares of CGR-stock went up for sale. Each share sold for $100, and investors often paid for them in installments. The cities of Savannah and Macon were among the largest shareholders. 

And soon, a leader was chosen: William Washington Gordon. I’ve already told part of his story (see PFS-65). Gordon’s father, Ambrose Gordon, came south from New Jersey with the Continental Army. At one point, he escorted George Washington from Savannah through the Georgian wilderness to Augusta.  

His patriotic service in the American Revolution proved lucrative, allowing him to amass title to thousands of acres of land in Georgia. He named his fourth son after the head of the Continental Army. 

Ambrose Gordon died when William Washington Gordon was only seventeen years old. The young Gordon would be sent to a private school in Rhode Island, where he earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1815. 

W.W. Gordon then served an apprenticeship with Savannah lawyer James Moore Wayne. Wayne became a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, concurred in the infamous 1847 Dred Scott Supreme Court Case and then presided over The Wanderer illegal slave importation trial of Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar (see PFS-76) just before the American Civil War broke out. He also wisely married Wayne’s niece in 1826. 

Such well-stocked connections offered Gordon access to the center stage of politics in Savannah. While there, he served in the Georgia legislature, facilitating the granting of the corporate charter for the Central Georgia Railroad. In 1836, the CRG-Board of Directors unanimously appointed him its President. 

Gordon dedicated himself to building the vital railroad line to Macon, in the process facing violent Irish labor strikes, deadly yellow fever outbreaks, complex engineering challenges, and a significant bank panic along the way. Important to remember, however, is that the initial building of the Central of Georgia Railroad line to Macon was accomplished mainly through the deployment of slave labor. 

Gordon died in 1842. He was the grandfather to Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low (see PFS-32). Completed in 1887 and painted en Plein air here, CGR’s ‘Red Building’ now serves as SCAD’s Clark Hall.