By Laura Lance

This three-part series places Aiken’s railroad cut and wooden bridges in historic context — the development and building of the Charleston-Hamburg line; issues of deterioration and upkeep; the human stories; the environmental elements; the costs.

Part Two of Three:
The Charleston-Hamburg Line
Romantic Notions
Learning Curves
The Railroad Cut

The Charleston-Hamburg Line

The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company built the original Charleston to Hamburg line, which was completed in 1833. At that time, it was the longest railroad line in the world.

Cut of “A new map of South Carolina with its canals, roads & distances from place to place along the stage & steam boat routes.” by Henry Schenck Tanner (1786-1858) in 1833. The  earliest general map to show the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company’s line. Altered.

Within 10 years, other new companies were started and new lines laid throughout the state. By the start of the Civil War, South Carolina could boast 13 railroads with over 985 miles of track. By the turn of the twentieth century, the 136-mile Charleston-Hamburg line would be part of an elaborate network spanning the entire country, encompassing nearly 200,000 miles of railways.⁷

The ownership of the Charleston to Hamburg Railroad was reorganized and/or changed hands several times during the 19th century and beyond. Each of these changes represented periods of growth and/or financial struggle. 

• South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company: 1828 (bought by the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Railroad Company in 1937)
• South Carolina Rail Road Company, 1843
• South Carolina Railway Company 1881
• South Carolina and Georgia Railroad Company 1894
• Southern Railway Company 1899
• Norfolk Southern Railway 1982 [Aiken Railway 2012, a short line railroad, leases local track from Norfolk Southern]⁶

During lean times, the line did well to survive. During periods of prosperity, improvements were made. The construction of Aiken’s six railroad bridges was roughly aligned with two periods of prosperity. The first occurred during the decade after the railroad cut was created, (1852-1862), and the second occurred during the final decade of the 19th century. 

These two periods bookended the Civil War and its aftermath, which had left the state economy threadbare and the railroad in shambles. The company was fairly quickly able to recover the tracks and other infrastructure destroyed by Sherman’s troops in 1865, but numerous other factors drove the company deeper into debt. In 1878, the South Carolina Rail Road Company was forced into receivership and sold at auction in 1881 to northern capitalists, who took control from the Charleston capitalists who had managed and directed it for over 50 years.⁷

Five years later, the newly-formed South Carolina Railway Company would take two major hits. In the first, the company was forced to change the gauge of the tracks — and, accordingly, acquire a new fleet of cars and engines — to match the standard across the Eastern Seaboard. The second was the Charleston earthquake of 1886, whose estimated magnitude of 6.9-7.3 rocked the entire state, the shock and damages extending into every region, including Aiken County.

“Wrecked at Langley.” One of two train derailments caused by water from the dam breaks at Langley and Bath during the Charleston earthquake of August 31st, 1886. Photographed by James A. Palmer, Aiken, S.C. In the public domain.

In Horse Creek Valley, the Langley dam broke, followed by the Bath dam. In the wake, two different trains derailed, their engines washed off the tracks. The lives of two engine firemen were lost in the two wrecks.The railroad was to fall back into receivership and changed hands twice more before the turn of the century.⁷

Prosperity began to take root, however, with the rise in passenger service during the 1880s-1890s . In the mid-1890s, the Chesterfield Street bridge was built. In 1897, following years of tension over issues with the railroad bridges, an agreement was reached between the South Carolina and Georgia Railroad Co. and Aiken officials. The company was to replace the York, Newberry and Laurens Street bridges within two years, with designs to match the newly-built Chesterfield Street bridge.⁸ In 1899, the company erected a new bridge at Fairfield Street and built Aiken’s Southern Railway passenger station at Union Street.

Postcard: The Southern Railroad station. Hugh C. Leighton Co., Portland, Maine (publisher) 1905. This work is in the public domain.

For the next 50 years, the railroad’s financial health ebbed and flowed with US wars,  booms, busts, and the Great Depression. By 1950, the railroad industry had made the switch from steam to diesel, which marked the swan song of the steam locomotive.

ABOVE: From the publication, “The First Quarter-Century of Steam Locomotives in North America.” Smithsonian Institution. Smith Hempstone Oliver, Curator of Land Transportation. United States National Museum. Bulletin 210, page 4. Click to view full size.

Southern Railway discontinued Aiken’s passenger service in 1950, citing declining demand and lack of profitability. This decision had been fought for two years prior by city leaders, merchants, the Aiken mayor, and also representatives from Branchville, Augusta and other towns along the line that would be affected by the closure.⁹ In 1954, Southern Railway demolished Aiken’s passenger station — again, over the protests of local leaders and merchants, who had requested the railroad donate or allow the city to buy the passenger station to be repurposed as a bus station or be used for other municipal functions. 

The loss of the passenger station and of passenger service — a fixture in Aiken since the first passengers arrived to town on the Charleston-Hamburg line in 1833 — changed forever a way of life in Aiken.

Romantic Notions

Aiken’s railroad history is marked by romantic notions, one being the idea that the train was built for the purpose of transporting wealthy travelers from the Low Country to Aiken to escape the heat and enjoy Aiken’s renowned healthful environment . This happened, of course, but it was freight service — specifically cotton trade — that brought the railroad to Aiken.⁷

Also, contrary to popular belief, no one ever rode the original “Best Friend of Charleston” to Aiken. That locomotive exploded in 1831 and never made the trip to Aiken. More on this in a moment.

Another romantic notion that reads like a page from the Scarlett O’Hara playbook is the story of the dashing civil engineer winning the hand of the beguiling plantation owner’s daughter in exchange for bringing the railroad to daddy’s doorstep. Left on the cutting room floor of that tale are the roles of the cotton trade, topography, and a man named Abram Blanding.

The establishment of the railroad was a long-contemplated effort, whose impetus grew during a series of economic blows to the state. First were slashed cotton prices in 1818-1819. This was followed by a general collapse of the US economy with the Panic of 1819. On the heels of this, a succession of tariff laws was passed in the 1820s that disadvantaged cotton growers and led to the nullification crisis. South Carolina was on the frontlines of this battle. The need to get upstate cotton to the port at Charleston was urgent.⁷

Wagon transport over South Carolina’s notoriously bad and often impassable roads had proven no competition for the efficiency of the river barge. Before the Charleston to Hamburg railroad was built, upcountry growers in traveling distance to Augusta hauled their cotton by wagon to Hamburg for transport down the river to Charleston’s rival port in Savannah.

The 1821 chartering of the town of Hamburg on the Savannah River  was one of the state’s first efforts to link trade from the South Carolina upcountry to Charleston. Another was the construction of numerous canals throughout the state in the 1820s to float the cotton to Charleston. Another was the chartering of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company in 1827 to explore the possibilities of digging canals and/or building rail roads to bring the cotton from Hamburg to Charleston.⁷

Toward this end, in 1827, the superintendent of the state’s public works, Abram Blanding, was directed by the SC legislature in to survey the lands between Charleston to Hamburg for a possible canal and/or railroad. He and his crew of engineers quickly deemed a canal too difficult and expensive, however they found the rail road idea “perfectly practicable.”¹⁰

In 1828, several years before Pascalis and Dexter mapped out the route, Blanding’s report presented four possible means for the route. Only two involved completion of the rail line to Hamburg. The first route took a circuitous path that would add an additional six miles to the route, “the price which must be paid to avoid a stationary engine,” Blanding wrote.¹⁰

In the second route, he described the potential ascent from Hamburgh:

“The Valley of Horse Creek may be followed up to Wise Creek, [an early name for Sand River, a tributary of Big Horse Creek] which on the map is represented as heading near the Horse Pen Pond, [near the present day Levels Baptist Church] and up the valley of the latter creek to one of its head branches, one of which is found to be 160 feet lower than the summit, and 215 higher than Hamburgh — the road from Hamburgh into this branch may be graduated on a rise of less than 20 feet to the mile, and the remainder of the ascent must then be gained by a stationary engine working on an inclined plane, of any angle or rise which may be deemed advisable.”¹⁰

ABOVE: Cut of 1827 map, “North and South Carolina” by H.S. Tanner. Locations cited in Blanding’s 1828 description are visible. Click to view full size.

Learning Curves

Peripheral but important to the history of the Charleston-Hamburg line were the multiple learning curves inherent to developing and constructing — through trial, error, sometimes failure, and with very limited funding — a new mode of travel.  An early failure was the Charleston-Hamburg railroad track, which had to be laid not once, but twice during the 1830s.

For another, there was much to be learned about building the iron horse. How to power this locomotive — with wind, horse, steam or slave? The decision went to steam. While the 136 miles of tracks were being laid, numerous steam engines were built, tried, and improved upon. Among them were the West Point, the South Carolina, the Charleston, the Barnwell, and the Edisto. Each engine provided the trial-and-error lessons (e.g. weak wheels, broken axles, boiler failures) necessary to improve the engine for final success.⁷

ABOVE: Three illustrations of 1830s era Charleston-Hamburg line steam engines from the article, “The Growth of the Steam Engine” by Professor R. H. Thurston The Popular Science Monthly, January 1878. In the pubic domain. 

The Best Friend of Charleston was the first engine to be built and subsequently improved upon. It was also the first to carry passengers and mail. The Best Friend’s run was limited to a short line service that ran a 6-mile length of track from Charleston to Summerville for six months during 1830-1831, before the infamous boiler explosion that destroyed the engine. Lesson learned through trial and error: engine workers needed to be trained for the job.

Another engine, the Phoenix, was built from the remains of the Best Friend. The Phoenix may or may not have been the first engine to make the maiden 1833 trip from Charleston to Aiken to Hamburg. There were three engines in good service that year — the Phoenix, the Barnwell, and the Edisto — that could have made the trip; however, the name of the first engine to make the historic 136-mile to Hamburg on October 3, 1833 seems lost to history, entirely eclipsed by the name of the little engine that exploded two years earlier and, therefore, couldn’t.

In addition to the engine, there were freight cars, passenger cars, tender cars and lumber cars, whose construction and designs also had to be worked out through trial and error. 

The railroad track provided an even steeper learning curve. How to build a track capable of carrying a heavy locomotive (whose design was still in its infancy) over 136 miles of variable terrain? Economic considerations led to a heavy dependence on wood, which was largely free and available along the route. Without an extravagance of free wood (according to one estimate, 12 acres of trees per mile for the crossties, alone), the railroad could not have been built. 

The first of the two Charleston-Hamburg rail beds, built in the early 1830s,  didn’t resemble the earthen embankments of today. The tracks were elevated on wooden pilings.Think of a 136-mile-long bridge or trestle that ran over marshes, swamps, creeks, and long stretches of gently rolling landscape. Depending on the elevation in any given area, the height of this trestle could be 6 to 12 inches above ground, or it could rise 25 or more feet in height. ¹¹

The wooden piling system proved a fast failure. Despite being made of hard, resinous longleaf pine — one tree per piling — they began rotting at soil level within the first two years, causing a number of train derailments. Between 1834-1839, the old tracks were rebuilt using a system of primarily earthen embankments and trestles. 

The inclined plane — an elaborate device employed to raise and lower the locomotive up and down the steep grade into Horse Creek Valley — also proved impractical. While the inclined plane drew curiosity and awe, it was widely panned in its day because it was dangerous, time-consuming and difficult. The inclined plane was dispensed with during its second decade. In 1852, and at great expense, the line through town was rerouted through the railroad cut that was dug through the center of Aiken.

There have been several discoveries of the original tracks over the years. In 1944, excavators working for the Graniteville Company uncovered a buried section of the wooden structure in Warrenville. In 1985, more remnants, bared by erosion, were found along Cathedral Aisle in Hitchcock Woods by Dr. W.P. Bebbington. In 2016, more remnants of the original track and parts of the inclined plane were discovered up near the Aiken plateau, washed into Sand River near the Devils’ Backbone trail, part of the original railbed, in Hitchcock Woods^.11

The Devil’s Backbone trail in Hitchcock Woods, part of the original South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company railway bed.

There were several incarnations of the inclined plane used in Aiken, the first of which was powered by slave labor. In fact, nearly every aspect of the railroad’s construction and operation — indeed, the very existence of the railroad and the cotton industry that gave birth to its Aiken destination — was only made possible through land grants, cheap land, free wood and slave labor.¹²

Slaves — both men and women — did the hard labor of building the railroads. Slaves felled the trees, hauled the timber and cut the wood to make the rails, crossties, pilings, bridges and trestles. They drove the pilings deep into the earth every 6-1/2 feet for 136 miles. They battled quicksand, hard clay, marshes, swamps, malaria and yellow fever to build the line to Hamburg. Once the railroad was completed, slaves performed the frequent inspections, upkeep and repairs over every mile of track. Slaves operated the locomotives, working as brakemen, firemen and enginemen.  When the tracks disintegrated, and the trains derailed, slaves cleared, repaired and rebuilt the mess. Slaves cooked the food to serve the passengers, hauled the baggage and trunks, and polished the boots that stepped off that train. Slaves planted, hoed, picked and baled that upcountry cotton — including Mr. Williams cotton — all bound for the port at Charleston and onward to England. Slaves turned the cranks to operate the inclined plane in Aiken, and when the inclined plane proved too impractical, slaves were put to work digging the deep railroad cut through Aiken. Slaves all but certainly built the first bridges across that red clay gash.

And when slavery ended, those former slaves — the strong and able-bodied among them — were arrested on spurious charges and forced back into labor with the convict leasing system,¹³ which farmed these prisoners out to railroad companies to dig more ditches, clear more forests, and to lay and repair thousands more miles of track.

“We punish a man who steals a loaf; if he steals an entire railroad, we say a financier; let us ask him to dinner.” — Rev. Dr. Wayland

Throughout the 19th century, railroad companies, including the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company and its successors, were among the largest owners of slaves and lessees of enslaved humans and convict labor. These workers suffered the most grueling jobs under the cruelest of conditions. The death rate was high and rarely recorded.

“The convict labor is contracted for, and is of great value in the building of the railways and the clearing of forests. As a rule, the men are worked from dawn to dark, and then conveyed to some near point, to be locked up in cars or barracks constructed especially for them. They are constantly watched, working or sleeping ; and the records of the Penitentiary show many a name against which is written, ‘Killed while trying to escape.’” (From the 1875 publication, “The Southern states of North America: a record of journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.” By King, Edward. Page 120. In the public domain.

“After the railroad cut was completed in 1852, 130 slaves, 85 mules, 3 horses, 90 carts and harnesses, 25 wheelbarrows, shovels, and other equipment used for the excavation were advertised for sale to the highest bidder. The cut, which cost $125,963.94, is a significant physical feature of Aiken. It is of interest because of its association with the railroad that caused the town to be planned and with the institution of slavery. Consequently, although it is not a beautiful feature, it is one that should not be hidden or disguised.” — from page 30 of the Aiken Design Review Board Manual

The Railroad Cut 

The Southern Railway Company abandoned Aiken’s railroad cut in the early 1960s. The 6.2-mile line from Aiken to Warrenville remained unused for nearly 15 years, except as storage for a long string of boxcars unceremoniously parked on the line and left to the whims of vandals and rust. In 1967 — and in the wake of several calls for the Aiken Fire Department to put out fires in the boxcars — the City threatened to sue Norfolk Southern. The boxcars were rearranged into a satisfactory compromise. The abandonment of the Aiken to Warrenville line was, perhaps, the public face of an industry in steep decline.

Against this backdrop, Aiken was hit on the night of April 15, 1969 with 9.68” of rain over a period of 7 hours, provoking severe flooding throughout the city from Crosland Park, to the downtown, to the southside and the westside.The Rollingwood Road area in Kalmia Hills was catastrophically deluged, with water said to be rising one foot per minute at one point, as the railroad embankment (which was constructed at the same time as the railroad cut in 1852) essentially acted as a dam. The waters rapidly rose to roof level in a period of less than 30 minutes. Neighbors and firemen with boats quickly responded to provide emergency rescues, some from second-story windows.¹⁴

Questions over the railroad’s role in helping address the causes of the flooding in the Rollingwood Road area are reflected in City Council minutes, which convey the frustration among citizens and City officials over the railroad’s response to calls for the company to take a role in addressing stormwater and drainage issues involving railroad property.

ABOVE: Screenshots with excerpts of discussion from April 25, 1969 Aiken City Council meeting minutes. Click to view full size.

The discussions surrounding the April 1969 flood bled into existing concerns over the effects of the City’s stormwater on the ecology of Hitchcock Woods. This was a longstanding issue that began during the Winter Colony building boom that peaked in the 1920s, and exponentially worsened with the population explosion brought by the construction of the Savannah River Plant in the early 1950s.

In 1956, a study was undertaken by the City and an emergency plan enacted to address the stormwater, which had dug a “gully” fifty feet deep and 100 feet across Sand River. This followed a failed effort years earlier to direct the water down into the woods via a concrete flume. The gully that had since formed in the ruins of the concrete flume was now caving in beneath South Boundary Extension/Hitchcock Lane dirt road, posing danger to passing cars. A plan was devised to correct the situation in two ways — by filling in the gully and by piping the water further down into the woods before allowing it to “run free.”¹⁵

By 1974, the remnants of the numerous efforts to contain the water were “littering” the floor at the mouth of Sand River, which was now being termed a canyon.¹⁶

Decades of dumping increasingly huge volumes of stormwater into the Woods had inflicted flooding, erosion, landslides and tree-smothering sediment that were damaging the ecology of the woods with force violent enough to topple trees, carve towering canyons over Sand River, and dislodge concrete slabs from former (failed) retaining walls. The historic Horse Show Grounds in the woods had to be relocated twice due to siltation.

The cause was taken up by Friends of the Woods, Inc., an environmental conservation group formed to protect and advocate for the Woods. They claimed that the difficulty of resolving the City’s stormwater issues was aggravated by the railroad cut and embankment. The group urged the City to take control of the then-abandoned railroad cut and use it to pipe the City’s stormwater away from the Hitchcock Woods and down the cut into a series of retention ponds and/or discharge it into Horse Creek.¹⁷

Meanwhile, the abandoned railroad cut was gathering weeds, garbage and trash. Stormwater was left to erode away the railroad cut, threatening to undermine the bridges. The railroad company disavowed responsibility for the bridges and turned a deaf ear to the steady stream of complaints by city officials and citizens. At some point, the railroad company tore up and/or partially demolished some stretches of track in the railroad cut. Teenage drivers were known to take joyrides in the ravine during those days.

In June 1972, the City hinted that it might go forward with action to condemn the railroad cut and seize the land by eminent domain. The city hoped, in part, to use access to the cut to address the stormwater issues. The railroad threatened to fight such a move and, in December 1972, announced plans to reopen the railroad cut.

In response, a group protest was mounted by Friends of the [Hitchcock] Woods, affected Kalmia Hills property owners, and the Aiken City Council. The group requested that the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) provide an Environmental Impact Statement. Southern Railway was asked to provide financial and economic data to justify reopening the line. 

Suits were waged¹⁸; the results of the Environmental Impact Statement were contested, with the results deemed “grossly inadequate,” and “at great environmental cost.”¹⁹ Somewhere along the way, in January 1974, the Laurens Street bridge collapsed. More lawsuits were waged.

“Ironically, the bridge fell in as a result of work being done to expedite the flow of still greater quantities of water into the main branch of Sand River.”¹⁶ — W.P. Bebbington

In November 1975, the Laurens Street bridge was rebuilt and reopened. At the same time, an agreement was reached to relieve the railroad company of responsibility for the maintenance and future replacements of that bridge.

In March 1976, City Council passed a Resolution stating the City, Friends of Hitchcock Woods and affected Kalmia Hills residents “vigorously protested”²⁰ the reopening of the railroad cut. According to a timeline prepared and presented to City Council that same month by Friends of the Woods member, Dr. W.P. Bebbington, the Southern Railroad Company had stopped using the cut in the early 1960s and then applied to the ICC in 1969 for permission to abandon the 6.2-mile line from Aiken to Warrenville. Permission was granted in 1970 and took effect in 1971. 

According to Southern president W. Grahm Claytor, the ICC application was “merely to formalize the termination of operations over this line, with the right at any time to request restoration of services when and if this appears justified.”²¹

In November 1976 (by which time dust from the bridge collapse and the lawsuits had mostly settled), the railroad began the work of cleaning up the ditch and reopening the line.

“Sand River. Aiken, South Carolina” By James A. Palmer. 1870s. In the public domain.
A view of Sand River in the 1870s, likely similar to the landscape that met Abram Blanding’s engineers when they surveyed this area in 1827-1828.

Over the next forty years, millions of dollars would be spent on studies and stormwater remediation efforts. In 2022, the Hitchcock Woods/Sand River stormwater issue was finally addressed through a $16 million project to install massive underground detention vaults near the head of Sand River to both contain and slow down the velocity of the water entering Hitchcock Woods.²²

______________________

Next

Part Three of Three: The Railroad Bridges

For Reference

FEATURE PHOTO: Bridge Deck Detail. Fairfield Street bridge Photographer: carlfbagge. Flickr album: Aiken, 2008. https://www.flickr.com/photos/12535240@N05/2539409343/in/album-72157623125207498

6. Timeline compiled from “Southern Railway History” at the website Southern Railfan.
7. Primary information on this history compiled from the pages Charleston & Hamburgh Railroad, and South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, and South Carolina Railroad/Railway, and Southern Railway at the website carolana.com
8. Aiken Journal and Review, December 15, 1897.
9. ”Aiken Representatives Fight Removal of Trains at Hearing in Columbia.” Aiken Standard and Review. November 24, 1948.
10. Law, Donald M., Associate Editor. “Blanding was Genius Behind Aiken’s Railroad” and “Blanding Deserves the Credit for Aiken’s Existence.” Aiken Standard. March 15, 1987.
11. Wayt, Howard. “Railroad Tracks Belonging to the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company, c.1839–1852.” IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology 42, no. 1 (2016): 19–36. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26606651.
12. Witcher, T.R. The Birth of Steam Engines: The Charleston-Hamburg Railroad. Civil Engineering, September 2017.
13. Washington, Clara Olds Keeler. Crime of Crimes; or The Convict System Unmasked. Also: pdf.: 1908. African American Pamphlet Collection, Libarary of Congress. In the public domain.
14. Hindman, Emily. “Aiken Area Mops Up After Costly Flood.” Aiken Standard and Review. April 17, 1969.
15. ”Sand River Erosion Under Study by City.’ Aiken Standard and Review .July 14, 1956.
16. Bebbington, W.P. “Hitchcock problems increase as developments close in.” Aiken Standard. February 28, 1974.
17. Bebbington, W.P. “A Program Toward Solution of Hitchcock WoodS Problems.” Aiken Standard. March 1, 1974.
18. Wendel, Debby. “Council to consider bridge suit.” Aiken Standard. May 8, 1974.
19. Wendel, Debby. “Environmental Study Labeled Inadequate.” Aiken Standard. July 5, 1974.
20. Aiken City Council meeting minutes. March 8, 1976.
21. Hindman, Emily. “Railroad Cut Bridges are Major Problem for City.” Aiken Standard. September 9, 1971.
22. Staff Reports. “Innovative Stormwater Project Protects Hitchcock Woods.” Aiken Standard. December 26, 2022.

For More Reading

• Front page of The Abbeville Banner and Press. September 8, 1886. Statewide coverage of the Charleston earthquake.
• Case Study: Langley Dam (South Carolina, 1886) damfailures.org
• Girardeau, Elizabeth L. “ Early Settler Moseley Founded a Large Family. Small Farms Occupied the Pine Barrens” General and genealogical information on Aiken’s founding. Aiken Standard. April 30, 1985.
• Abandoned Rails: The South Carolina Rail Road and Canal Company
• The National Park Service: African Americans and the Railroad
• When it Rains, it Pours into Hitchcock Woods Hitchcock Woods Foundation.
• McCormick Taylor Sand River Stormwater Implementation Plan.
• “Cohesive Channel Response to Watershed Urbanization: Insights from the Sand River, Aiken SC” December 2020.
• “Transportation Drives Deforestation.” 19th-century railroads and deforestation. From the website MovingNorthCarolina.net

By Laura Lance

This three-part series places Aiken’s railroad bridges in historic context — the development and building of the Charleston-Hamburg line; issues of deterioration and upkeep; the human stories; the environmental elements; the costs.

Part One of Three:
– Questions on Restoration
– Just How Old is That Old Bridge?
– The 1990s
– The Elements
– Some Recollections

__________________________

Questions on Restoration

Recent discussions on the Fairfield Street bridge have centered around the possibility of making it a pedestrian-only bridge. Matters of historic preservation and restoration have naturally been part of these conversations. At least one person has raised the possibility of a study to see if, rather than resorting to demolition, the existing bridge — whose components have all been found to be in poor to failed condition — can be restored, partially or in full, to serve as a pedestrian bridge. 

Most any structure can be restored, given enough time and money.  The question becomes, what is realistically possible for this bridge?

Specialists in historic wooden bridge restoration could bring insights to the table. Local officials with knowledge of the past could attest to the bureaucratic gridlock and the lack of funding that have kept these bridges in a chronic state of decay and disrepair for much of the past 175 years. As a native to Aiken, I can offer that the two railroad bridge collapses that occurred during my lifetime were attributed, in great part, to erosion, lack of maintenance and/or a heavy rainfall.

Certainly, the railroad bridges are historic; the railroad cut is historic; the role of the railroad in the founding of Aiken is historic. But what do we really know of this history? What physical aspects of this history are we seeking to preserve? What is physically left to restore?

ABOVE: View of the tracks in railroad cut as seen from bridge.
Photograph: carlfbagge. Flickr album: Aiken, 2008.

Some Histories

Just How Old is That Old Bridge?

Aiken’s old wooden railroad bridges didn’t arrive to the late 20th century/early 21st century era with their original 19th century construction. While records on these bridges are spotty, sometimes contradictory, sometimes incorrect, and often difficult to confirm, enough records exist to show that all of these bridges have been heavily altered, rebuilt and/or replaced to varying degrees over the years. None of these bridges retains its original construction.

This is because the lifespan of the wood in the old bridges was measured in decades, not centuries. The most recent replacements of the York Street bridges illustrate this ongoing reality. The bridges were demolished and replaced in 1994. Less than 25 years later, in 2017, the bridges were again demolished and replaced, the latter replacement a single-span steel hybrid bridge with wood decking, wood railings, and a predicted lifespan of some 75 years.

The proposed Fairfield Street bridge replacements also reflect this reality. In the May 6, 2025 Design Review Board (DRB) meeting, three options were presented for the Fairfield Street bridge replacement (see pages 196-197 of the DRB Agenda package). The life cycle costs on Options 2 and 3 (see page 158 of this same agenda package) include bridge replacement every 30 years.

• Option 1; a single-span steel hybrid bridge similar to the 2017 York Street Bridge replacement.
• Option 2 — a 3-span Glu-lam timber bridge. .
• Option 3 – a 3-span timber bridge similar to the existing bridge.

A speaker in this same meeting said that the Fairfield Street bridge replacement “may likely serve us for the next 100 to 150 years, like the current bridge had.” This may have left some individuals with the impression that the wooden structure we see today is original to its 1899 construction, which is not accurate. 

So how old is that bridge? How old is the decking? The foundation? How old are the timbers in the railings, girders, beams, piles and piers?

Norfolk Southern spokespersons have been quoted as saying that all of Aiken’s wooden bridges were replaced in 1952, which would be the same year a second York Street bridge, (the northbound lane), was added. This would be a logical timeframe, as it would coincide with the influx of federal dollars and some 100,000 workers and new residents to Aiken in 1952 during the construction of the Savannah River Plant. If true, the oldest timbers of the Fairfield Street bridge may date to 1952, with the most recent timbers dating to repairs in 1999 and 2009. 

The 1990s

Pick a decade, any decade. The stories are remarkably similar, repeating from one to the next. The 1990s is as good a time as any to recap the typical issues these bridges have brought to the table over the course of any decade.

September 1990: City Council discussed the continuing deterioration and need to replace the bridges at Fairfield, York and Newberry Streets. Also on tap were discussions on upkeep and funding, with City Attorney James Holley citing an 1890s agreement that stipulated the railroad company would maintain the bridges, but which hadn’t specified the standards for that maintenance.

April 1991: City Council discussed the possibility of using funds available through the Federal Bridge Replacement Act to replace the Newberry and York Street bridges. (The Fairfield Street bridge did not qualify for this funding.) According to SC Department of Transportation (SCDOT) estimates, the replacements for Newberry and York Street bridges would cost, respectively $352,000 and $604,000. The City and Southern Railway each agreed to pay 10% of these costs. 

October 1991: City Council approved an agreement with the SCDOT for replacement of the Newberry and York Street bridges. The work was to be tackled within the next 2 to 5 years. At that time, the SCDOT also recommended closing the Fairfield and Union Street bridges.

March 1993: Norfolk Southern started work demolishing and rebuilding the northbound lane of the York Street bridge. The southbound lane followed, with work completed in December 1993. 

August 1993: The SCDOT backed out of the October 1991 agreement due to a later SC Highway Commission decision to replace only a fraction of the state bridges earlier committed to. 

September 1993: City Manager Steve Thompson said during a City Council meeting that railroad bridges at Newberry, Fairfield and Union needed replacement. He said that the cost estimates, which he placed at about $450k per bridge, were prohibitive for the City.

October 1994: An Aiken Standard editorial made mention that the Fairfield and Union Street bridges had recently been rebuilt. (I was unable to find confirmation that this happened, although, but did find a February 2016 SCDOT bridge inspection report stating that existing Fairfield Street bridge was “built” in 1992).

October 1995: The Newberry Street bridge was closed after SCDOT inspectors found “holes in the surface” and “the soil around the foundation caving in.”¹

February 1997: The SCDOT bridge design engineer was quoted in Aiken City Council minutes as saying the Union, Fairfield, York and Chesterfield Street bridges were in “relatively good shape.” 

July 1997: Work began on the Newberry Street bridge replacement at a cost of approx. $1.15 million (not quite double the 1991 estimate), with the majority of funding coming from the Federal Highway Department.

February 1999: The Fairfield St. Bridge was briefly closed to repair rotten timber, pilings. and bridge decking.

Two notable points emerge from reading the accounts of the 1990s. For one, the railroad company wanted to turn over responsibility for all future bridge upkeep, maintenance, repairs and replacements to the City. For another, the SCDOT was recommending the permanent closure of both the Fairfield and Union Street bridges. 

The Elements 

Aiken’s climate is ideal for wood decay, between the annual rainfall and warm temperatures, both of which are friendly to the fungi and bacteria that break down wood. Aiken’s rainfall has also been responsible for the erosion, flooding, stormwater issues, landslides and cave-ins that have undermined tracks, bridge foundations, and properties adjacent to the railroad cut over the past 175 years. 

Railroad cut erosion from 2008. Photographs: carlfbagge. Flickr album: Aiken, 2008.

An 1893 newspaper account described a badly washed embankment at the Laurens Street bridge. An 1899 account described more of same due to a heavy rainfall. A 1912 landslide caused a train to wreck, derail, and damage the supports to the Newberry Street bridge.  In 1917, a particularly large landslide behind the Wilcox disturbed guests as an estimated 100 tons of red clay fell, covering the railroad track. Several landslides occurred in the railroad cut in 1925.

In 1929, a torrential rainfall — said to be the heaviest rain in the memory of some of Aiken’s oldest residents — flooded the railroad cut, causing a landslide in the railroad cut near Chesterfield Street and completely submerging the tracks in some areas. In 1959, a heavy rain flooded the railroad cut at the Union Street bridge — a chronic issue dating back to the 19th century.

Issues of bridge condition and erosion inside the railroad cut continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s and onward. According to a 1971 Aiken Standard article titled, “Railroad Cut Bridges are Major Problem for City,”² local officials had “repeatedly called he railroad’s attention to its responsibility in maintaining the bridges” and implored them to address “grave concerns at the generally deteriorating condition of the Laurens Street bridge.” The City manager wrote directly to the railroad president.

In 1971, for the second time in a year, the Laurens Street bridge was closed and declared “unsafe.”³ A combination of causes was cited — erosion, lack of maintenance, and a heavy rain that undermined the track, severed a water main in the cut, and caused the bridge’s concrete foundation to crack.

In 1974, as contractors for the City worked to install a stormwater drainage pipe, the bridge collapsed. Afterward, the city manager was quoted in an Aiken Standard article titled “Council to Consider Bridge Suit,” as saying the bridge “was not in sound condition before it fell,” and saying about the railroad company, “We feel that they do have liability for the collapse.”⁴

In 1975, the Laurens Street bridge was replaced with a pre-stressed concrete and steel bridge. History repeated 37 years later with a second bridge collapse in 2012.⁵

In the wake of the second collapse, matters of the railroad cut were discussed during an April 17, 2012 City Council meeting, excerpts of which can be read in the four screenshots below. 

ABOVE: Four screenshots from April 17, 2012 City Council meeting minutes. Click to view full-size.

Over the past decade, three major stabilization projects have been completed in the railroad cut, with most of the work occurring in the embankments behind the Wilcox, between the Newberry and Chesterfield Street bridges:

— 2017 Stabilization of the York Street bridge abutments using soil nails and colored shotcrete during the replacement of the two bridges. 

— 2017 Stabilization of the railroad cut embankment at the Chesterfield Street bridge using soil nails and colored shotcrete as part of a stormwater drainage project.

— 2018 Stabilization of the embankment behind the Wilcox Inn to address the growing threat to the foundation of the historic inn caused by a chronic erosion and acute damages caused by fallen trees/loss of root structure in the embankment during the ice storm of 2014. This was a two-phase project, named the Historic Railroad Cut Stabilization Project, which involved geotechnical evaluation of the embankment, followed by extensive work to stabilize the embankment including soil nails and the application of colored shotcrete. The $2.18 million project was funded with FEMA grants and matching local funds. 

ABOVE: Images from the three railroad cut stabilization projects completed in 2017 and June 2018.. Note the shotcrete (concrete) covered embankment in the staircase photo, dyed to match the native clay. Photographs: Michael Aiken

ABOVE: June 2025 images of the railroad cut stormwater drainage and stabilization work behind the Wilcox Inn and beside the Chesterfield Street bridge completed in 2017-2018. Note that the surface treatment is shotcrete, a type of concrete product, that was dyed to match the color of the native red clay. Photographs: Michael Aiken.

No matter if crossed by foot, wagon, horse or car, Aiken’s wooden bridges have always been high-maintenance, needing frequent, inspections, upkeep, repairs, and some form of rehabilitation every 7-8 years; some would argue 10-15 years. The bridges have needed major rebuilding or replacement every 20-30 years. The railroad cut has likewise needed regular inspection, and the recently-stabilized embankments and bridge abutments will likewise need periodic inspections.

Whose job will this be going forward? Who, if anyone, is responsible for addressing standing water and erosion in the railroad cut? Who has the power to enforce that responsibility? What authority, if any, does the City have to protect the foundation of a bridge planted on someone else’s property?

The railroad cut viewed looking east from the newly-built York Street in 2017. The Fairfield Street bridge, closed in 2016, is visible in the near distance. Photograph: Michael Aiken.

Some Recollections

I grew up with these bridges. I always liked their ramshackle construction and the familiar clickity-clack sounds of the decking boards when cars crossed over. In my earlier years, I regularly crossed all the bridges on foot to go downtown to the movies, the pool hall, the sub shop, the stores, school and the library (then located at the corner of Hood and Laurens). The Fairfield Bridge, with its leafy canopy of trees, was always my favorite. I crossed it with my best friend on summer days to buy comic books and candy at the Johnson Drug store. I have vivid memories of crossing it on spring mornings on my way to Schofield and pausing halfway across the bridge, just to take in the pretty view down the east side of the track. Today, even in its decline, the Fairfield Street bridge is the only wooden bridge that still looks like old Aiken. The others are all changed now; ruined.

Although the new design for the York Street bridge is an improvement over the generic, concrete ugliness of the Laurens Street bridge replacement, I still miss the dark, creosote-soaked timbers of the old bridges. I miss the decking boards laid perpendicular to the sides. That’s what makes the memorable clickety-clack sound. Whatever their construction, those old wooden railroad bridges felt solid to me.

ABOVE: Bridge deck detail on Fairfield Street bridge in 2008. Photograph: carlfbagge. Flickr album: Aiken, 2008.

The Union Street bridge was always the outlier. Most people either love or hate the Union Street bridge. It was always my least favorite, even before the time I became airborne during my first trip over it as a teenage driver in the 1970s. For as long as I can remember, the Union Street bridge, or “high bridge” as some called it, felt and looked rickety. I recall the flimsy, higgledy-piggledy pipe-and-wire railing persisting well into my adulthood. I never had much good to say about that bridge, except to say thank goodness I made it to the other side.

In 2003, as the finishing touches were being put on the latest replacement of the Union Street bridge decking, the SCDOT received a citizens’ petition to close the bridge to vehicular traffic due to the limited sight distance available to drivers going over the bridge. City Council discussed this in a June 9, 2003 work session. Citizens in attendance advocated for keeping the bridge open. The consensus among Council members, according to the meeting minutes, was to keep the bridge open and review the area for possible speed bumps, speed signs, and signage to warn pedestrians of traffic.

If I’d been active in City issues at that time, I could have told them about the long-ago morning when my brother saw an elderly man on foot crossing the Park Avenue intersection at the bottom of the Union Street bridge. The man stumbled and fell in the roadway, then just laid there. Was the man sick? drunk? dead? My brother, who was just a kid, stood there frozen, not knowing what to do. A car could come over at any second and roll over the man. If my brother went to the man’s aid, might they both be hit?

That was the thing about that bridge. It was like driving off a cliff; a Thelma and Louise moment every time you crossed. Even driving as slow as a snail, there was no telling what was on the other side until you got there. Fortunately the odds were in the man’s favor. After a few long moments, he got up and continued on his way.

Next

Part Two of Three: 
The Charleston-Hamburg Line
Romantic Notions
Learning Curves
The Railroad Cut

For Reference

FEATURE PHOTO: Bridges over Aiken Railroad Cut. Front to back, York St bridges, Fairfield St bridge, and Union St bridge.Photographer: carlfbagge. Flickr album: Aiken, 2008. https://www.flickr.com/photos/12535240@N05/2238403088/in/album-72157623125207498

1. Kirkland, Chasiti, “Bridge May Be Closed for Two Years.” Aiken Standard, October 25, 1995. 
2. Hindman, Emily. “Railroad Cut Bridges Are Major Problem for City.” Aiken Standard, September 9, 1971. 
3. “Laurens Street Bridge Closed; Declared Unsafe.” Aiken Standard, June 22, 1971. 
4. Wendel, Debbie. “Council to Consider Bridge Suit.” Aiken Standard, May 8, 1974. 
5. Banton, Amy. “Laurens Street Bridge May Open Today.” Aiken Standard, October 4, 2012.