Hook and Eye Line The Hiwassee Loop at Bald Mountain, near Farner, Tennessee. L&N's route between Marietta, Georgia, and Etowah, Tennessee, was nicknamed the Hook and Eye Line because of two memorable curves on the route. The Hook was a tight double reverse curve at Tate Mountain, between Whitestone and Talking Rock, while the Eye was an 8000-foot loop up Bald Mountain near Farner, Tennessee. At the Eye, better known as the Hiwassee Loop, the track encircled the mountain nearly twice before crossing back over itself via a 60-foot-high trestle. The 1.5 percent grade loop was built in 1898 to replace a set of switchbacks. L&N later bypassed the Hook, but the loop remained in operation until 2001 when L&N successor CSX abandoned the 43 miles of line between Etowah and Copperhill (in Polk and McMinn counties, Tennessee). In July 2002, the Southeast Local Development Corporation, a regional improvement organization, reached an agreement with CSX to acquire the abandoned line and convert it into a scenic recreational trail. In recent years, however, the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, in partnership with the Tennessee Overhill Association, has been running passenger excursions from Etowah, TN along the Hiwassee gorge and over the Loop. Some of these trips continue beyond the Loop to Copperhill, TN and McCaysville, GA for a 94-mile roundtrip excursion. The loop is shown here on the Farner, TN, 1:24,000 scale topographic map. The two switchbacks were in the area marked "BM RN 199 1261" at the bottom of the map.   RailGa.com. Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage. © Steve Storey Railroad History | The Depot List | Locomotives On Display | Odds & Ends | Sources & References | Home