Smyrna Railroad Depot

Smyrna exists because of the railroad. The Nashville and Chattanooga sited depots that created new towns, and officials estimated land prices rose from five to fifteen dollars an acre. The cutting, grading and tunneling were done largely by enslaved African Americans contracted out to the railroad and by Irish laborers; at the Cowan Tunnel the Irish did the blasting, because owners of contracted slaves expected payment if their property was hurt, while the Irish were considered expendable. The line reached full operation on February 11, 1854.

What the plaque says

Smyrna Railroad Depot A combined freight and passenger house, the Smyrna Railroad Depot was erected in 1851, and replaced in 1873. It was a direct result of the charter granted by the State of Tennessee on December 11, 1845, to the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad to connect this area with the seaports of Charleston and New Orleans. The depot is the brick, rectangular-shaped structure that lies due west, just across the tracks.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 8.8 mi
  The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 17 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
• Fort Negley — 18 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• National Museum of African American Music — 19 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.

More markers nearby

• Sam Davis — steps away
• Sewart Air Force Base — 1.4 mi
• Wheeler's Raid around Rosecrans, December 30, 1862 — 1.7 mi
• Old Jefferson — 1.7 mi