Railroad Industry
As a business man, Norcross had a vested interest in the railroad as did many industrialists of the time. With this in mind, his involvement in rail efforts was strong, for "he key issue before inland cities like Atlanta was transportation, and the railroad was the key to commercial prosperity."
On 3 April 1856, Norcross, who served as the first president, and 15 fellow gentlemen incorporated Air Line Railway, which was to run through the Carolinas and Virginia facilitating traffic from New York to New Orleans. He failed to get funds from the Georgia General Assembly largely because of intense lobbying from the competing Georgia Western Railroad and Central of Georgia Railway. After Norcross got a bond commitment from the city of Atlanta, Lemuel P. Grant joined the list of adversaries supporting a different route (Georgia Western Railway) and by 1860 both rail ventures were dead. However, from Norcross' initiation of the development of the Richmond–Danville Railroad, proposed 1856; his determined efforts led to a modest beginning, of which, the first 20 mi. were laid, 12 Sept. 1869.
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