The Norfolk Southern James River Bridge is a bridge that carries Norfolk Southern Railway traffic over the James River in downtown Richmond, Virginia. The bridge was built by the Southern Railway. The bridge is over 2,000 feet long, and also spans over the western edge of Mayo Island. The bridge originally connected the Richmond and Danville Railroad to the Richmond and York River Railroad both of which became part of the Southern Railway System.
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69 m
The Triple Crossing in Richmond, Virginia, is one of two places in North America where three railroad lines cross at different levels at the same spot, the other being the BNSF operated Santa Fe Junction in Kansas City. Santa Fe Junction became a triple crossing after the Argentine Connection was completed in 2004.
At the lowest level, Norfolk Southern Railway operates a line to West Point, Virginia on its Richmond District line. The line was first built by the Richmond and Danville Railroad between 1886 and 1895 and split off from its main line on the north side of the railroad's James River bridge and ran to the eastern end of the peninsula created by the Kanawha Canal. This line was paralleled by an older trestle built by the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad in the early 1880s. The trestle and tracks ran from the R&A yards at Eighth and Canal Streets, along Byrd Street, and ended at the terminus of the peninsula. Between 1895 and 1905, the R&D extended its line across the canal to join with the old Richmond and York River Railroad at a point just to the west of Pear and Dock Streets. The bridge which carried the line across the canal was replaced in 1930 by one built by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company. After the Civil War, the R&D had built a connection railroad to the R&YR along Dock Street and primarily used this line to route its West Point traffic. However, the Dock Street line was abandoned in the late 1980s, upon which all traffic was routed to the line lying on the south of the canal.
The middle level was formerly the main line of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and is now part of CSX Transportation's "S" line. The 18-foot-high trestle was built between 1897 and 1900 as part of the Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad, which was bought by the SAL in 1898. About 1,000 feet north of the Triple Crossing lies Main Street Station, which was jointly operated by the SAL and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. This line is planned to become part of the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor.
At the top level is the 36-foot-high Peninsula Subdivision Trestle, a 3-mile-long viaduct parallel to the north bank of the James River built by the Chesapeake and Ohio in 1901 to link the former Richmond and Alleghany Railroad with the C&O's Peninsula Subdivision to Newport News and export coal piers. The viaduct, now owned by CSX Transportation, provided an alternate path to the notoriously unstable Church Hill Tunnel which was used from 1873 to 1925 and buried a work train with fatalities on October 2, 1925. A locomotive and ten flat cars remain entombed with at least one rail worker, killing several others whose bodies were eventually recovered.
The triple crossing has been a Richmond attraction for railfans for over 100 years, although the number of photographic angles decreased in the 1990s due to a new flood wall. The three railroads intersecting at Triple Crossing staged photos with trains on all three levels on several occasions.
133 m
The James River and Kanawha Canal was a partially built canal in Virginia intended to facilitate shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western counties of Virginia and the coast. Ultimately its towpath became the roadbed for a rail line following the same course.
Encouraged by George Washington, the canal project was begun in 1785 as the James River Company, and later restarted under the James River and Kanawha Canal Company. It was an expensive project which failed several times financially and was frequently damaged by floods. Though largely financed by the Commonwealth of Virginia through the Virginia Board of Public Works, it was only half completed by 1851, reaching Buchanan, in Botetourt County. When work to extend it further west stopped permanently, railroads were overtaking the canal as a far more productive mode of transportation.
After the American Civil War funds for resuming construction were unavailable from either the war-torn Commonwealth or private sources and the project did poorly against railroad competition, finally succumbing to damage done by massive flooding in 1877. In the end its right-of-way was bought and the canal was largely dismantled by the new Richmond and Alleghany Railroad, which laid tracks on the former towpath. The R&A became part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in the 1890s, which developed much of the former canal route into an important line for West Virginia bituminous coal headed eastbound for the Peninsula Extension to reach the Hampton Roads coal piers at Newport News for worldwide export aboard large colliers.
315 m
The Southern Railway Depot on 14th Street in Richmond, Virginia, was a passenger station for the Southern Railway that operated from 1900 to 1914. Another name of this depot was Mill Street Station. Previously, the Southern had operated its Richmond passenger service out of an old Richmond and Danville Railroad wooden frame depot that laid about 600 feet south of the 14th Street Depot. This depot had been constructed around 1865–1866 to replace the one built in the early 1850s and burnt in the Fall of Richmond in April 1865. The original R&D depot had been the departure station for the train carrying Confederacy Jefferson Davis and his cabinet to Danville immediately before Richmond fell to the Union Army during the Civil War.
Around the turn of century, the railroad initialized plans to replace the old R&D depot with a new one constructed of brick and granite. They hired architect Frank Pierce Milburn to design it and awarded the contract to Frederick "Fritz" Sitterding. In the railroad journal, The Railway Surgeon, an intricate description is given of the depot:
"The building will be of granite and gray pressed brick, with a green slate roof. it will have a 70-foot frontage on Mill street and 175 feet on Fourteenth street, with a 100-foot tower on the corner. The arrangement of the interior will be simple and convenient, with an entrance through a vestibule on Mill street, and beneath the tower. Ticket offices will be located at the right of the entrance, and at the north end of the waiting room and adjoining the vestibule will be situated the ladies' parlor. At the extreme south end of the waiting room will be a room for colored people, with a hallway between connecting with the baggage and express rooms. The waiting room will be 40 by 50 feet, finished in chestnut, with frescoed walls and ceilings and marble tiling floor."
Construction was finished in 1900. In 1914, the Southern decided to split its passenger services into two stations: one at Main Street Station, a couple blocks away from the 14th Street depot, and another at a new station on Hull Street, appropriately named Hull Street Station. As a result of this split, the 14th Street Depot was demolished and replaced by a freight depot with combined offices. The new freight depot was 40 feet wide and 480 feet long and had offices on the first floor for the first 40 feet and on the second floor for 150 feet. The remaining 440 feet on the first floor was devoted to freight warehouse space. The reason for the demolishment of the 14th Street Passenger depot was that the Southern Railway needed the additional space for freight.
The new 14th Street freight depot continued to serve the Southern until the 1980s when the railroad merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway to create the Norfolk Southern Railway. At this point, most of the freight depot was demolished except for a 166-foot section fronting on what is now Canal Street. This was redeveloped as the Southern Railway Taphouse and is a popular bar and brewery in the present day.
317 m
Mayo's Bridge is located in Richmond, Virginia. A four lane structure, it transports U.S. Route 360 across the James River. Signage identifies the bridge as "Mayo's Bridge".
The bridge is in two sections, separated near the middle by Mayo's Island. The total length is 1,374 feet.
The current structure was built in 1913, and accommodated heavy streetcar traffic. It is Richmond's oldest highway bridge across the James River.
Prior to the construction of Mayo's Bridge, travelers had to utilize Coutts' Ferry, run by Patrick Coutts until his death in 1776 and later by his brother Rev. William Coutts until his death in 1787. The ferry landing was at a place called the "Sandy Bar" at the end of 18th Street. The ferry was kept up for many years after the bridge was built as the 6.25¢ toll was impressive and the bridge was often broken, thus necessitating the ferry. Patrick Coutts was something of a legend in old Richmond. This stemmed from the story that he had crossed the river not by ferry or bridge, but by sturgeon.
Many people petitioned the Virginia Assembly for the right to build a bridge, but none were successful in receiving permission. Around the mid-1780s, John Mayo, son of William Mayo, was given the opportunity to build a toll bridge but died soon after. His son, John Mayo Jr., inherited his estate and finally completed the first bridge across the James in 1788. This bridge was very rudimentary and consisted of “large logs, raft-like, spiked to the rocks, with rough floor laid on the logs” on the north side of Mayo's Island and of a pontoon bridge that had planks laid on top of a series of boats on the south side. This bridge was destroyed the winter after its completion by ice floes dragging the bridge away. It was destroyed and subsequently rebuilt in 1814, 1816, 1823, 1865, 1870, 1877, 1882, and 1899.
It was built on the site of the city's first bridge completed in 1788 by John Mayo Jr., the grandson of the man who first laid out Richmond's grid pattern. During the American Civil War the bridge was burned by retreating Confederate soldiers on April 8, 1865.
In 1882, the a portion of the bridge collapsed with nine people on it; however, no one was killed or badly hurt in the incident.
Rising just 30 feet above the water line, Mayo's Bridge is currently Richmond's only bridge subject to flooding. Large floodgates in Richmond's flood wall protect the surrounding areas on each side during James River flooding. The bridge's closeness to the river surface has made the sidewalks on either side of it popular fishing locations.
332 m
Castle Thunder, located between what is now 18th Street and 19th Street on northern side of E Cary Street in Richmond, Virginia, was a former tobacco warehouse in three buildings, located on Tobacco Row, converted into a prison pursuant to an order of Richmond's provost-marshal John Winder by August 1862. The Confederacy there housed civilian prisoners, including captured Union spies and deserters, political prisoners and those charged with treason during the American Civil War.
President Jefferson Davis is reported to have said that for every Confederate sailor hanged he would hang a Union soldier of corresponding rank, chosen by lot from among the thousands of prisoners in the Richmond tobacco warehouse. Indeed, many inmates were sentenced to death. Moreover, the prison guards had a reputation for brutality, though the inmates were sometimes allowed boxes of medicine and other supplies.
The prison's most notorious commandant was Captain George W. Alexander, who commanded Castle Thunder from October 1862 until removed in February 1864 after an investigation by the Confederate House of Representatives, which nominally cleared him. As a Confederate soldier fighting in Maryland, Alexander had been captured by Union Army troops in 1861. While awaiting execution, he escaped and fled to Richmond. There, Alexander took command of the Castle Thunder Prison, which had nominal a capacity of 1,400 inmates, although by January 1863 it had more than 3000 inmates. Security at the prison was intense under Alexander, and diseases including smallpox and dysentery were rampant. Prisoners complained of Alexander's brutality and that of his guards, particularly excessive lashings and use of his large dog Nero to intimidate them. Alexander defended his discipline by citing the hard-bitten character of the inmates.
Among its many notable occupants was Union officer William Jackson Palmer. In 1862, he was captured while scouting after the Battle of Antietam within Confederate lines in civilian clothes while gathering information for General George McClellan. When questioned he gave his name as W.J. Peters and claimed to be a mine owner on an inspection trip. While the Confederates did not know he was a spy, his circumstances were suspicious and he was detained and sent to Richmond, Virginia, for detention at Castle Thunder. He was set free in a prisoner exchange and rejoined his regiment in February 1863.
About 100 women were imprisoned at Castle Thunder, since the also-notorious Libby Prison housed only men. Perhaps the most famous imprisoned woman was Dr. Mary E. Walker, a Union surgeon at Chatham Manor in Fredericksburg since the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, whom Confederate pickets arrested as a spy in April 1864 and who was imprisoned until a prisoner exchange on August 12, 1864. Although Walker reassured her mother in a letter from prison that she had a clean bed and adequate food, she weighed only 60 pounds on her release from Castle Thunder. Following the conflict, Walker received the Medal of Honor, the only woman to receive that distinction.
Some prisoners were transferred from Castle Thunder to Danville after the end of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia in March 1865. After Union forces captured Richmond in April 1865, they used the prison for those accused of unruly conduct and similar purposes. Although Mollie Bean had pretended to be a man to enlist in the Confederate Army, and served for two years in the 47th North Carolina, her Union captors suspected her of being a spy.
After the end of military rule, the property was returned to its owners. However, in 1879, a fire destroyed the warehouse and Civil War–era prison Castle Thunder in its entirety.
The southern end of the bridge runs beneath what is today the Manchester Floodwall Walk Observation Area. On the north shore it leads to the lowest section of the Triple Crossing.