THE SOUTHERN Richmond & Danville—East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia—Formation of the Southern Railway Security Company—Growth and Combinations —Failure and reorganization of the East Tennessee—Reversal of position between the Richmond & Danville and the Richmond & West Point Terminal—Acquisition of the Central of Georgia—Failure and reorganization of the whole system—Subsequent development. At the present time there are in the South five great railway systems: the Atlantic Coast Line; the Seaboard Air Line; the Southern Railway; the Louisville & Nashville Railroad; and the Illinois Central Railroad, which cover, in the order named, the territory between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. The backbone of the Southern Railway is formed by the old Richmond & Danville and East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia companies: of which the first formerly stretched with its subsidiary lines from Washington and Richmond on the north to Atlanta, Georgia, and Greenville, Mississippi, on the south and west; and the second reached from Bristol, Tennessee, in a great half circle to the ocean at Brunswick, Georgia, and by means of the Mobile & Birmingham straight to the Gulf at Mobile. The Richmond & Danville was opened in 1856 between Richmond and Danville, Virginia. It was largely aided by the state of Virginia. Three-fifths of its stock were owned by the state in 1867, there was a state loan of $400,000, and a state guarantee of $200,000 besides.[286] In natural consequence the state elected three of the six directors. It was not long, however, before the state was able to relieve itself of a large part of its investment. On the 31st of August, 1871, all of the state shares were taken over by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.[287] The money sunk in the company’s bonds still remained. From Danville the Richmond & Danville steadily pushed south in the years following 1856. Under the leadership of the Pennsylvania it became its ambition to open direct rail communication from the great Northern cities to the heart of North and South Carolina and Georgia. To obtain a ninety-mile extension to Charlotte the company leased the North Carolina Railroad, 223 miles in length.[287] To get into Atlanta it allied itself with the Atlanta & Richmond Air Line Company, projected to construct a line between Atlanta and Charlotte.[288] In 1878 it bought a controlling interest in the Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta Railroad and secured entrance to the latter city.[289] The Pennsylvania aided the new enterprise by advances from time to time, and when the current liabilities became unmanageable took $1,000,000 of a new refunding mortgage.[290]