s completed in 1886. By that point, the line was operated as part of the Richmond and Danville Railroad until 1894 and controlled by the Southern Railway afterward. (Asheville's final passenger train, a coach-only remnant of the Southern Railway's "Carolina Special", last ran on December 5, 1968.)
Asheville had the first electric street railway lines in the state of North Carolina, the first of which opened in 1889. These would be replaced by buses in 1934.
1900s to present
Asheville prospered in the decades of the 1910s and 1920s and at one point was the third largest city in the state, behind Charlotte and Wilmington. The Great Depression, the period of Asheville's history made world-famous by the novel Look Homeward, Angel, hit Asheville quite hard. On November 20, 1930, eight local banks failed. Only Wachovia remained open with infusions of cash from Winston-Salem. Because of the explosive growth of the previous decades, the per capita debt owed by the city (through municipal bonds) was the highest in the nation. By 1929, both the city and Buncombe County had incurred over $56 million in bonded debt to pay for a wide range of municipal and infrastructure improvements, including the courthouse and City Hall, paved streets, Beaucatcher Tunnel, school buildings and municipal parks. Rather than default, the city paid those debts over a period of fifty years. From the start of the depression through the 1980s, economic growth in Asheville was slow. During this time of financial stagnation, most of the buildings in the downtown district remained unaltered. Therefore, Asheville has one of the most impressive, comprehensive collections of Art Deco architecture in the United States.
On July 15-16, 1916, the Asheville area was subject to severe flooding from the remnants of a tropical storm which caused more than $3 million in damage. In September 2004, remnants of Hurricanes Frances and Ivan caused major flooding in Asheville, particularly at
