Camden and Cheraw will "in effect become suburbs of this city... through the construction of the new Seaboard Rail Line. The State May 10, 1900.
The Blue Marlin occupies the former Seaboard Air Line Railway Station, which served passengers in Columbia. The Seaboard Air Line Railway was created in the 1880s by the consolidation of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad, and a number of other lines in the Carolinas. Eventually, more that 100 lines would be incorporated into the S.A.L. By May of 1899, 65 passenger trains came through Columbia, daily, including the Seaboard Air Line Railway, the Southern Railway and the Atlantic Coast Line.
In June of 1899, to insure that a new planned rail line would come through their community from Cheraw, Columbia's city council agreed to lease Sidney Park (now Finlay Park) to Seaboard for $30,000. It turned the park into a rail head (yard) in a matter of a few months, and returned the property to the city in the 1960s.
One of the most remembered of Seaboard's trains that stopped at this former station was the Silver Meteor. Begun in 1939, it ran from New York City to Miami, Florida, covering 1,389 miles in 25 hours. The Silver Meteor was diesel powered, had all-reclining seat coaches, a diner, a tavern-coach and an observation car. The streamliner proved so popular that Seaboard had to order new cars the next year and even added Pullman sleeping cars (in dull Pullman Green, spoiling the all-stainless silvery look).
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967, and this railway station eventually closed in 1991, after serving Columbia for 87 years.
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