A Railroad Runs Through It

The railway line between Neabsco and Powells Creek was completed in 1872 by the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad despite steep terrain that required numerous deep cuts and fills to maintain a gentle grade. Over the years, these conditions led to several landslides and train derailments. In its first year of operation, the Alexandria Gazette reported that after washing of the A&F Railroad, the passenger and baggage car of a train due from Quantico ran off the track in a deep cut at Freestone Point, and a repair train was sent immediately so the track could be put in good order again. Around the same time, an effort to stabilize tracks along a slide used a temporary timber trestle secured to trees farther up the hill. Delayed on the way to Fredericksburg, P.T. Barnum, traveling with his circus, remarked that he had been all over the United States, but this was the first railroad he had ever seen tied to a tree.

Virginia · United States