CHAPTER VIII. 



THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION 



OF 



TRANSPORTATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA 



By W. L. TRENHOLM. 



The area of the State is al)out 30,000 square miles, and its topography 

 creates tliree natural divisions, called the upper, middle and lower, of 

 wliich the dividing lines are nearly parallel with the general line of the 

 coast. 



Its frontage on the Atlantic, in a straight line from Little River Inlet 

 to the mouth of the Savannah river, is one hundred and ninety miles, 

 and towards this line the country descends in long undulations until it 

 runs into the ocean, where it's flat edge is frayed out into capes and points 

 and spits, or rent into islands, which present to the sea sloping beaches of 

 Avhite sand, backed by dunes covered with myrtle and studded with 

 palmettos. ""■ - . 



Between and behind these insulated fragments of the continent the 

 sea water extends in bays; sounds and harbors, bordered with vast areas 

 of marsh-covered mud flats, which, like the islands and the main land 

 in rear of them, are pierced by innumerable inlets, creeks and passages, 

 where twice a day the tides sweep through in endless ebb and flow. 



Here the large rivers from the upper and middle country mingle their 

 fresh waters with the brine, and lose their way to the sea amidst a laby- 

 rinth of tortuous passages. 



On a belt varying in width from ten to thirty miles and stretching 

 along the whole coast, these features repeat themselves with endless vari- 

 ation of detail, presenting to sloop and steamboat navigation access to 

 full five thousand miles of shore line and to rivers, up which these vessels 

 may ascend for hundreds of miles. 



In the old days before railroads, half the area of the State enjoyed un- 

 interrupted water communication with Charleston, and if we go back to 



