Tag: R&P Bridge (James River)

Wikipedia says: The Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Bridge was a bridge that carried the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad and several later railroads including the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad over the James River in Richmond, Virginia. It was first built in 1838 and after going through four different bridges was finally torn down in 1970.

The Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Company (R&P) was chartered on March 14, 1836, with available capital of $800,000. The company was unique in that its bridges could also be used for “travel by horseback, carriage, sheep, cattle, and hogs” in addition to the regular use by the train. This condition was not allowed at the James River unless the consent of the owners of Mayo’s bridge (the first bridge of the James at Richmond and in 1836 the only) was secured. Work on the railroad began in summer 1836 with Moncure Robinson as chief engineer. In May 1838 the railroad had completed a track running from the south bank of the James River at Manchester to the north bank of the Appomattox at Pocahontas and in September of that year a bridge was completed over the James. Originally, the R&P did not have a bridge over the Appomattox River as they used the Manchester and Petersburg Turnpike Company’s bridge to transport freight and passengers across the river. Thus, there was no railroad bridge over the Appomattox until 1867 when the R&P ran a line over the river to connect with the Petersburg Railroad.

The bridge was destroyed by the Confederate States Army on April 2, 1865 in anticipation of the Fall of Richmond. Shortly after the war ended, the federal government and the railroad company rebuilt the bridge over the James River, a 400-foot-long (120 m), 12-foot-high (3.7 m) trestle bridge. It opened on May 26, 1866 and was built at a cost of $118,245.