The Augusta, Knoxville and Greenwood Railroad (AK&G) was a South Carolina railroad company chartered shortly after the end of the Reconstruction period. In May 1877, the was incorporated into and became a branch of the AK&G. In February 1878, it was reported that the company had completed grading on 8 miles (13 km) of right-of-way beginning at Greenwood, South Carolina, with the goal of building a line to Knoxville, Tennessee. On May 8, 1878, the AK&G board awarded a contract to Wm. D. Grant of Atlanta to grade the next section of the line from Augusta to Walton's Island and to bridge across Warren's Canal. The groundbreaking ceremony for this next section was held on May 25, 1878. By June 1878, grading had proceeded such that they had expected to grade 4 miles (6.4 km) of right-of-way in