Editing Furman, South Carolina (section)

==Southern Railway in Furman==

From 1899 until the 1980s, the [[Southern Railway (U.S.)|Southern Railway]] operated a line through Furman and nearby [[Allendale, South Carolina|Allendale]], [[Tarboro, South Carolina|Tarboro]], and [[Lena, South Carolina|Lena]]. Called the "Southern [[Columbia, South Carolina|Columbia]] to Savannah Route", the rail also ran through [[Barnwell, South Carolina|Barnwell]] and [[Blackville, South Carolina|Blackville]] to the north. Its primary purpose was to increase north–south passenger and freight traffic by feeding into the [[Atlantic Coast Line Railroad|Atlantic Coast Line]] at Hardeeville for passage south to [[Florida]] or north to [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] and other points. The rail line was built to compete with another north–south rail line operated nearby by the [[Seaboard Air Line]] (also called the Florida Central & Peninsular, Seaboard Coast Line, and presently [[CSX Transportation|CSX]]) which ran a different course through [[Denmark, South Carolina|Denmark]], [[Fairfax, South Carolina|Fairfax]], [[Estill, South Carolina|Estill]], and [[Garnett, South Carolina|Garnett]] (parallel to [[U.S. Route 321|US 321]]) and then into [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. Between 1963 and 1970, Southern abandoned its tracks between Furman and Hardeeville, leaving Furman as the ending station from Columbia. In the early 1980s, Southern abandoned its tracks south of Blackville, ending its rail service to Barnwell, Allendale, and Furman.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abandonedrails.com/edmund-to-hardeeville|title = Abandoned Rails: Edmund to Hardeeville}}</ref> However, by the 1970s, any rail service to Furman would have been a rare event.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=003MQy|title=SR Abandonments in Wagener, Perry, and Salley, S.C.}}</ref>