Meanwhile the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad had been established to the west of the Richmond & Danville, in the heart of the southern Appalachians.[291] This company was a consolidation in 1869 of the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad, from Bristol, on the boundary between Virginia and Tennessee, to Knoxville, Tennessee; and the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad, from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Dalton, Georgia. Both roads were aided by the state of Tennessee. In 1870, however, the new company extinguished its debt to the state by the payment of $4,117,761 in state bonds. Not long after the completion of its line from Bristol to Dalton, the East Tennessee fell under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which already dominated its neighbor to the east. To facilitate the control and to unify the interests of the Pennsylvania south of Washington a “Southern Railway Security Company” was formed, with a capital of $5,000,000. This company was entrusted with a majority of the stock of the Richmond & Danville and of the East Tennessee. It also controlled the Coast Line railroads from Richmond to Charleston, and the Memphis & Charleston from Chattanooga to Memphis.[292] Unfortunately the financial results of the combination were disappointing. Of the subsidiary roads the East Tennessee managed to pay at least 3 per cent on its capital stock from 1872 to 1876; but the Richmond & Danville paid nothing, the Coast Lines nothing, and the Memphis & Charleston barely earned the 3 per cent guaranteed under its lease. In 1873, therefore, a special meeting was held at the office of the Southern Railway Security Company to consider the propriety of making sale of certain properties of the company.[293] In 1874 the lease of the Memphis & Charleston was surrendered,[294] and in 1876 the bulk of the securities held, outside of the Richmond & Danville stock, were disposed of.[295]