Chattanooga's Early Industry

Chattanooga's Early Industry. . , After the Removal of the Cherokee Nation in 1838, the southern bank of the Tennessee River was open for legal settlement. Prior to the Removal, 53 families had settled in Ross's Landing to establish occupancy rights. These families formed the core of the community that decided to call itself by the Greek name for Lookout Mountain--Chattanooga. , , The new community hoped to become more than an overgrown village, and it pinned these hopes on the development of an economy that could utilize the area's natural and geographical assets. Chattanooga's boosters felt sure that their town would grow rapidly in size, regional importance and economic value, and they set out to prove this by developing an industrial base, by improving river traffic, and by establishing a hub for a far-ranging rail network. , , Chattanooga's geographic position made it a natural candidate for regional warehousing and riverboat transport, but natural obstructions south of town made this a difficult task. Shoals and a whirlpool at the Suck necessitated significant improvements for navigation at regular water levels, and made the river unnavigable in the low water season, from late summer to early fall. Further south, the Muscle Shoals made steamboat navigation impossible and thus prevented easy passage to the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. The lack of a convenient method of east-west transportation led many Chattanoogans to see the railroad as the channel of the future. , , The first rail line to appear in Chattanooga was Georgia's Western and Atlantic, completed in 1850. But within the next decade, the Nashville and Chattanooga, the Memphis and Charleston, the East Tennessee and Georgia, and the Wills Valley also established lines that connected with Chattanooga and eventually used a common terminal at the south end of town. Chattanooga had quickly become an important hub for regional rail transportation. , , Aside from a distillery and flour mill, a brickyard, a water company, and a corn and flour mill, the most important industrial developments in Chattanooga were made by the East Tennessee Iron Manufacturing Company. Two separate operations were based here in Chattanooga. In 1854, the foundry at the south end of town was producing wrought and cast iron materials for use on the railroads, while on the bank of the river, directly before you, the company built the Bluff Furnace, which is pictured here at three different times in its history. , , Built in 1856, Bluff Furnace began reducing Roane County ore to pig iron in the hot blast method. This method required a continuous blast of preheated air that was piped into the furnace. This raised the temperature within the furnace and increased the amount of iron which could be recovered from the hematite ore. A steam plant produced the heated air, while locally produced charcoal was loaded into the furnace with the ore. , , In the late 1850s, James Henderson and Giles Edwards converted the furnace to burn coke, a more efficient fuel. Coke was produced by distilling coal to remove impurities. Thus the coke burned at higher, more consistent temperatures and increased the amount of iron reduced from the ore. Bluff Furnace was the first facility in the south to use this technology, and the first trial took place in 1860. Unfortunately, a lack of fuel caused the furnace to shut down after producing only 500 tons of pig iron. Shortly after the second blast began in November, 1860, an accident caused the furnace to shut down again. Extensive repairs would have been necessary to return the furnace to operation, but James Henderson returned home to the north, and Giles Edwards eventually stopped trying to bring the furnace back into production. , , By 1864, most of the physical plant had been destroyed. All of the furnace equipment that could be moved had been shipped south for use in an Alabama furnace, and stones from the walls had been used as ballast for the Union Army's bridge across the river. What was left of the furnace stack was then used as a lime kiln. Union soldiers burned limestone to produce lime, which was then used for mortar. What remained of the Blast Furnace stood as a reminder to Chattanoogans that business as usual was impossible without peace.