This abandoned route was part of the original Port Royal Railroad, and was built in 1871.

The Port Royal Railroad was chartered in 1856 to build a line from Augusta, GA, on the border with South Carolina, to the coast at Port Royal, SC. Construction on the line began in 1870 from Port Royal to the west, and continued to Yemasee by 1871; the entire route was completed to Augusta by 1873. That same year, despite financial assistance from the Georgia Railroad, the railroad ultimately failed, and the GRR took over the route in 1878, who reorganized it as the Port Royal and Augusta Railway.

Three years later, the railroad came under the ownership of the Central of Georgia Railroad, but the state of South Carolina requisitioned that portion of the right-of-way within South Carolina in a number of legal battles that took place in the early 1890s. Ultimately, in 1898, the PR&A and the Port Royal & Western Carolina Railroad (at the time both under the control of the state of South Carolina) merged to form the Charleston and Western Carolina Railway. Soon after, the C&WC came under the control of the Atlantic Coast Line railroad in 1897, ultimately becoming an official part of the ACL in 1959.

The line continued operation through the Seabord Coast Line merger, the consolidation of various lines into the Seaboard System, and ultimately, CSX.

This portion of the former C&WC between Yemasee and the end of the line at Port Royal was abandoned by CSX in the early part of the first decade of the 2000s.