Take a short walk on the Tybee Railroad bed, do not pass go, do
not collect 200 dollars, but please do collect the Train Station
Cache. Set a spell on the coolest bench along the old Railroad bed
and wait for the ghost train to arrive, while your waiting, enjoy
the view and if the tide is high, the water will be close under
foot. We hope you can continue on to collect the other four in the
series!
FTF Prize is one of my Handmade Slimline Pens that is made from
Redheart and Cocobolo in Chrome Trim
Some History...
The last run on the Central of Georgia's Tybee District occurred
on July 31, 1933, when engine 329 pulled eight coaches of a Central
of Georgia Railway Clerk's Organization picnic special to Tybee and
back.The rails were removed beginning in September, 1933.
More Information....
When you walk, jog, or bicycle on this 6.5-mile trail,
you’re traversing the roadbed of a railroad that took
passengers from eastern Savannah to Tybee Island for nearly 50
years starting in the late 1800s. Chatham County maintains the
palm-lined, limestone trail on McQueen’s Island and created
it beginning in 1991 as part of the Rails Into Trails program, an
effort to transform abandoned railroad rights-of-way into
recreational areas. A trip along the entire length of the trail
takes you past 18 fitness stations, past 30 wooden picnic tables,
and across 10 wooden footbridges. Besides what it offers in the way
of exercise, the trail presents visitors with vistas of marshland
and the south channel of the Savannah River, opportunities for
fishing and crabbing, and glimpses of wildlife indigenous to the
marsh. Keep your eyes peeled for creatures such as the Eastern box
turtle, the diamondback terrapin, the American alligator, the
redtailed hawk, the brown pelican, and the great blue heron, and
don’t be surprised if you walk up on a rattlesnake or two. We
haven’t seen any on our trips there, but we understand they
enjoy sunning themselves on the trail. The railroad was built over
17.7 miles of salt marsh, rivers, and tidal creeks by a group of
investors led by Savannahian D. G. Purse, who in 1885 owned a good
portion of Tybee Island and was trying to find a way to transport
people there that was faster than the two-hour ride by steamboat.
His solution was to build a railroad, and the idea was considered a
harebrained scheme by local folks; they were convinced it was an
engineering feat that couldn’t be accomplished. But Purse
persisted, and his Savannah and Tybee Railway began making
regularly scheduled runs in July 1887. A few years later, the line
became part of the Central of Georgia Railway system and was
operated from then on as the Savannah and Atlantic Railroad. The
last passenger excursion was in July 1933; by then, the advent of
the automobile and the construction of a road to Tybee (now US 80)
had made the railway obsolete. But in its heyday, the little
railroad carried thousands of Savannahians and out-of-towners to
Tybee for days of sunning and swimming at the beach and nights of
dancing at the Tybrisa Pavilion. The entrance to the trail places
you at its midpoint and is on US 80 just east of the Bull River
Bridge. The highway is well traveled, and there is not much space
at the trail entrance, so be careful when you pull off the road to
park. The trail is off-limits after darkness falls. Plans are to
extend the trail all the way to Tybee Island itself, but
that’s in the future.
