South Side Station

South Side Station, the original South Side Railroad station and the oldest such building in the state, was built around 1854 when the line was completed from Petersburg westward to Lynchburg, a distance of 123 miles. An express train could cover that distance in five hours, including one hour of stops at various stations, and the old City Point Railroad was purchased at the same time and became an extension of the South Side. During the Civil War, many Confederate troops arrived here from distant battlefields and were taken to Petersburg hospitals. In the final year of the war, the railroad was targeted by at least three Federal cavalry raids, service was disrupted while tracks were repaired, and during the siege the building was under constant bombardment as a strategic target. Trains had to stop out of artillery range at the Fleet Street crossing near Campbell's Bridge, and damage from a 30-pound artillery shell remains visible in the western freight wing where it struck a roof support beam that was later braced. The station was reported to have been hit twice by artillery projectiles during the siege. After the war, the building served as the offices of the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad under former Confederate Gen. William Mahone, whose office was on the upper floor of the passenger station. This rail line is now the Norfolk-Southern.

Petersburg, Virginia · United States