On November 14, 2004, five textile workers in Graniteville , South Carolina, were killed when their car struck a freight train at a railroad crossing.  Because railway transportation is usually extremely safe and reliable, this accident seemed bizarre and isolated.  Unfortunately, bad luck has struck again.

           

At 2:30 in the morning on Thursday, January 6, 2005, a Norfolk Southern railway train collided with another parked train on some tracks near Graniteville.  The accident would have been minor, and with limited injuries, except for the fact that the train was carrying tanks of chlorine gas from Augusta, Georgia, to Columbia, South Carolina.  This gas can be deadly if inhaled, and the wreck damaged the tanks and caused fumes to leak into the air.

           

Before any action could be taken, eight people died from the yellow fumes.  Over 200 local residents have been treated for respiratory ailments.  Governor Mark Sanford declared a state of emergency in Aiken County, and the residents near the crash site were quickly evacuated.  Over 5,400 people in the town of Graniteville were asked to leave their homes.  As quickly as possible, rescue workers and hazard crews managed to get the situation under control.

           

Train wrecks are few and far between in South Carolina, but they aren’t unheard of.  There have been five major wrecks within the state since the year 2000—fortunately, most of the injuries have been minor.  South Carolina has another interesting connection to historic railroad accidents.  Over 170 years ago, the state became the site of the first railroad accident involving a passenger locomotive.   The wreck was minor (one fireman was killed and a few crew members were injured), but significant.  Let’s get the “historical perspective.”

           

By the early 1800s, the residents of South Carolina had managed to build an elaborate series of canals and backwoods trails.  The bustling city of Charleston, however, still seemed to be isolated on the coast, set off from the rest of the state by marshes and forests.  It was easier to travel from Charleston to New York City than it was to travel from Charleston to Greenville (a town in the upstate of South Carolina).  The South Carolina Railroad Company decided to take advantage of this situation.  A convenient form of transportation—such as a railroad—could improve access across the state, and merchants would consider it well worth the ticket price.

           

This idea was extremely aggressive for the 1820s.  Steam-powered locomotives were starting to be used in England, but American investors only briefly discussed the possibility of building a track—the technology was still too new to be reliable.  In the end, the people decided that it was too great of an opportunity to pass up.  In 1827, land was chartered to build a railroad from Charleston to Hamburg, South Carolina (Hamburg is located right on the border of Georgia, near Augusta.  It is only a few miles from  Granitesville, SC, the site of the most recent train wreck).  

           

The first stage of construction took place in Charleston.  By 1830, a passenger train ran was running a regular route within the city, allowing residents to quickly and easily get around the area.  Appropriately, this train was named “The Best Friend of Charleston.”  The Best Friend didn’t last too long.  In 1831, a crew member got tired of listening to the whistle of the steam engine.  He tied down the steam pressure valve, causing the boiler to blow.

           

Only one fireman was killed in the explosion, but the Best Friend was put out of commission.  Nonetheless, it had introduced the passenger train to the rest of the nation.  .

           

The entire Charleston-Hamburg railroad line was completed a few years later.  With a length of 136-miles, it was easily the longest railroad in the world up to that point.  Unfortunately, competing cities, such as Savannah, saw the benefits of railroad construction and wasted no time in building their own.  By the mid-1800s, the entire country was covered with railroad lines (making the Charleston-Hamburg line far less impressive). 

 

The highlight of the railroad boom came in 1869 with the completion of the transcontinental railroad.  This massive project, which took only six years to complete, covered a span of over 1,700 miles and connected the eastern and western coasts of the United States.

           

The Charleston-Hamburg line was originally constructed for the benefit of Charleston, but it ultimately helped other South Carolina towns prosper.  For example, the town of Aiken (the seat of Aiken County, where Granitesville is located) was located just miles from the end of the railroad.  In the mid-1830s, the population of Aiken exploded due to the traffic from the line.