The Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway built the taller of the two Copper Creek railroad trestles in 1908. Rising 167 feet above the Copper Creek-Clinch River junction, the Copper Creek Viaduct was then one of the tallest railroad bridges in the eastern United States. Its construction, along with many other bridges and fifty-five tunnels, opened coal deposits in Virginia and Kentucky through a direct rail route to cities in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, replacing alternate routes that were more than one hundred miles longer and included some of the steepest grades in the United States. More than a century later, the viaduct remains a vital link in the rail network of Clinchfield's successor, CSX Transportation, carrying an average of 18 to 24 coal trains daily as well as trains hauling general merchandise, grain, plastics, lumber, chemicals, and aggregates. Northbound empty coal trains return to the coal fields of eastern Kentucky, Virginia, and southern West Virginia. The lower bridge was built by the South Atlantic and Ohio Railroad around 1890 and is now owned by Norfolk Southern Corporation, whose business there consists almost entirely of empty and loaded coal cars to and from Virginia coal mines. Agreements between CSX and Norfolk Southern allow each railroad to use the other's tracks, so trains from both companies can often be seen on either of the Copper Creek trestles.