The Abingdon Branch of the Norfolk and Western Railway was nicknamed the “Virginia Creeper,” likely for the train’s slow speed through this mountainous region. Initially chartered by the Abingdon Coal and Iron Railroad in 1887, little construction occurred until it was reorganized into the Virginia-Carolina Railway in 1898. By 1901 the railroad began providing passenger and freight service from Abingdon to Damascus and by 1913 reached Whitetop Station. By 1915 service was extended to present-day Todd, North Carolina. The line merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1919. The last train ran in 1977. In the 1980s a portion of the old railroad bed was converted into the Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail.