Citizens of Pensacola, led by William Henry Chase, a captain in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, developed a plan to construct a railroad from Pensacola to the interior of Alabama in the early 1830s.
Funds were raised with the sale of stock and of bonds issued by the Bank of Pensacola and guaranteed by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, and a roadbed was graded and trestles built from Pensacola to the Escambia River.
The railroad company managed to obtain some further loans, and sold off much of the equipment it purchased earlier to raise funds.
[5] The Alabama and Florida Railroad suffered severe damage during the Civil War.
Most of the rail on the Florida portion of the line was removed, and the engines and rolling stock belonging to the A & F RR (of Florida) were seized by the Confederate government and turned over to the A & F RR (of Alabama) and the Mobile and Great Northern Railroad.