After Indian Removal, European-American settlers moved in and later named it after James Anderson Whiteside (1803–1861), attorney, Chattanooga railroad promoter and land investor.

He and his Cherokee followers were opposed to European-American settlement in their lands; they moved to more distant areas of the frontier to avoid the Americans.

Confederate troops destroyed it during the Civil War, but Union forces rebuilt the Whiteside trestle in 1863, for what was then known as the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad.

The Whiteside structures were integral to the passage of freight and passengers through the Tennessee River valley from Chattanooga to points west.

The Tennessee River did not become navigable west of Chattanooga, as an alternate route, until after construction of the Hales Bar Dam and associated locks, which opened in 1913.