Riding the Rails on the Mobile and Girard Railroad

Riding the Rails on the Mobile and Girard Railroad

In 1845 influential men from the vicinity of Girard, Alabama and Columbus, Georgia met to discuss a railroad line to serve the surrounding area and Russell County. A charter was drafted for the Girard Railroad Company to extend southwestward to connect with Mobile Bay or intersect with the railroad from Montgomery to West Point. This program discusses positive and negative impacts on communities in East Central Alabama and shares details of early train rides from rural areas to the “Big City” of Columbus. We will follow the line as it expanded from Girard, Alabama southwestward to Troy, Alabama and beyond.