In the late 1840s, construction of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad had reached the base of the plateau below Sewanee. In 1853, Major A.E. Barney, a civil engineer, was commissioned to design a spur rail line to carry coal from Plateau mines to market, beginning in Sewanee and later extending to Tracy City, Coalmont, Gruetli-Laager, and Palmer. The line became known as the Mountain Goat Railroad because of its steep climb from Cowan onto the Cumberland Plateau, and at the time it had the steepest railroad grade in the world. In its heyday, it ran 3 or 4 trains a day carrying both coal and passengers. Passenger service ended in 1971, freight service ended in 1984, CSX abandoned the line in 1985, and the tracks were removed in 1986. In the early 2000s, the Mountain Goat Trail Alliance was formed to convert nearly 40 miles of the former rail bed into a paved, multi-modal trail.