The Orange and Alexandria Railroad (O&A) was a railroad in Virginia, United States. Chartered in 1848, it eventually extended from Alexandria to Gordonsville, with another section from Charlottesville to Lynchburg. The road played a crucial role in the American Civil War, saw the first of many mergers in 1867, and eventually became an important part of the modern-day Norfolk Southern rail system.
In 1854, the General Assembly granted the O&A the right to build southward from Charlottesville to Lynchburg. O&A paid for trackage rights over Virginia Central tracks from Gordonsville to Charlottesville. In 1860, the southern extension was completed, including lucrative connections to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and the South Side Railroad. The O&A also connected with the Manassas Gap Railroad (chartered in 1850), at Tudor Hall (today named Manassas for this junction) which gave it access to the Shenandoah Valley.[2]
The railroad boosted Virginia commerce. Farmers from Virginia's Piedmont region, and later, the Shenandoah Valley could more cheaply ship their products, produce, and goods to the markets of Washington, D.C., and Richmond, and to ocean-going vessels berthed at the Potomac River port of Alexandria. Alexandria, Richmond, and Lynchburg also became manufacturing centers. Passengers could travel from Washington to Lynchburg in eight hours instead of enduring a three-day stagecoach journey.
American Civil War
1861 barricades on Alexandria's Duke Street, erected to protect the Orange and Alexandria Railroad from Confederate cavalry
Repairing damage after a Confederate cavalry raid
Union Mills Station
The O&A depot and roundhouse in Alexandria were located in today's Carlyle/Eisenhower East area
The locomotive, "General Haupt" is being used for work detail. Standing on the bank is USMRR Supt for the O & A railroad, John Henry Devereux. He and his "boss" Herman Haupt are often confused. Devereux is slightly more portly than the very slim Haupt. Haupt USUALLY wore his BG uniform. This image is of work being done on a "Y" on the O & A. Possibly close to Devereux Station in 1863
Orange & Alexandria Railroad Bridge over Bull Run (ca. 1863)
The railroad entered Reconstruction in dire shape, with much of its track ripped up and most of its rolling stock destroyed. However, Barbour rebuilt the railroad with the help of various politically connected financiers and his brother-in-law J.S.B. Thompson. In 1867, the O&A merged with the Manassas Gap Railroad (led by Edward Carrington Marshall) to become the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad.[2]
A cutoff between Orange and Charlottesville was incorporated in 1876 as the Charlottesville and Rapidan Railroad and opened in 1880. The Southern Railway acquired the line in 1914.
Modern times
The Wilkes Street Tunnel near the railroad's former eastern terminus is now a pedestrian tunnel.
The O&A built the first transportation tunnel in Virginia: the Wilkes Street Tunnel in Alexandria, Virginia, opened in 1851 but completed in 1856. Located just a few hundred yards west of the Potomac River, it connected the wharves to the rest of the line.[citation needed]
The area around the tunnel became known as "Tunneltown", part of an African-American neighborhood called "Hayti". By the mid-20th century. it was a shantytown and squatter's haven known as "Owens Beach". Revival efforts began in 1968 when an old row tenement on the NE corner of Royal and Wilkes was turned into luxury apartments called Tunnel Flats.[citation needed]
As wharf traffic declined and Alexandria became more suburban, daily trains through the tunnel decreased to two a day. One, the Southern train to the PEPCO plant, last ran on November 25, 1969. This was a symbolic run, made at walking speed with children hanging from the train and dignitaries on hand. An employee walked in front of the locomotive as it went down Union Street, stopping to let shoppers and diners move cars that were parked on the tracks. The other train, to the Robinson Terminal at Duke Street, ceased in 1974, and the tracks were pulled up in mid-October 1975.[6][7]
By 1980, the city was seeking federal funding to turn the tunnel into a bike trail, which was done before 1999. In 2003, the city added a crosswalk to Union Street to connect the tunnel to the park on the other side. In 2007-2008, the tunnel was refurbished, receiving steel reinforcement ribs, more and brighter lighting, drainage improvement, and extensive pavement repairs.[8][9]
^Netherton, Nan & Wyckoff, Whitney Von Lake (1995). Fairfax Station: All Aboard!. Fairfax, VA: Friends of Fairfax Station. p. 153. Archived from the original on December 25, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
^ abJohnson, William Page II (Spring 2004). "The Unfinished Manassas Gap Railroad"(PDF). The Fare Facts Gazette. Vol. 2, no. 2. Historic Fairfax City, Inc. p. 1. Archived(PDF) from the original on March 17, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
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