Reprinted from The Right Way Magazine, Volume 51, No. 5
Popularly referred to as the “Tybee Branch” or “Tybee Railroad,” the Savannah and Atlantic Railroad was built in 1887, extending from Savannah to the main part of Tybee Island, a distance of 17.7 miles.
The capital stock of this railroad was acquuired in 1890 by the Central Rail Road and Banking Company. Only one instance of interrupted service is recorded for the line built on marsh and water. This interruption occurred in 1893, when the tracks on McQueens Island were washed away by storm.
Featuring one of the lowest fares in the country, one cent per mile, the Tybee Branch was one of the most popular railroads in the country. Excursions to Tybee were an integral part of the social life of Savannah and Central employees. The advent of the automobile and the building of the road to Tybee spelled doom for the little railroad, however, and the last excursion was July 31, 1933, when locomotive No. 329 carried eight coaches filled with members of the Central of Georgia Railway Clerks’ Organization.
The actual work of taking up the tracks was begun Sept. 18, 1933, just ten years after the highway was built.