As early as September 1829, business interests in Petersburg sought to build a railroad between Petersburg, Virginia and Weldon, North Carolina to connect the Appomattox and Roanoke river and draw trade away from Norfolk, Virginia, which was linked to North Carolina by a canal. Incorporated on February 10, 1830, the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad became one of the earliest railroads in the United States, and by 1833 travelers could make a trip along sixty miles of the line. By the Civil War, the Petersburg Railroad reached the North Carolina coast and the interior of the Deep South, and at Weldon, North Carolina, it connected with the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, allowing cargo to move rapidly from the coast to the war front, while other connecting railroads linked it to lines leading deeper into the South. By the spring of 1864, it had become one of only two main supply arteries for General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, carrying essential war material including food for troops and fodder for animals, which made it, together with the South Side Railroad, one of Lieutenant General U.S. Grant's two primary objectives during the Petersburg campaign. The original roadbed of the Petersburg Railroad is the present-day Halifax Road.