Antebellum Period
The Orange and Alexandria Railroad (O&A) was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly on May 28, 1848, to run between Alexandria to Gordonsville. Construction began in 1850 and was completed in April 1854,when it connected with the Virginia Central Railroad in Orange County.
Also in 1854, the O&A was granted permission by the Virginia General Assembly to build southward from Charlottesville to Lynchburg (O&A had to pay to use what are now known as trackage rights over the Virginia Central Railroad for a section from Gordonsville to Charlottesville). In 1860 the southern extension between Charlottesville and Lynchburg was completed with connections to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and the South Side Railroad. The O&A greatly benefited from the connection with these two railroads, as well as connecting with the Manassas Gap Railroad to the Shenandoah Valley at Tudor Hall (today named Manassas after this junction).
The end result was great for commerce in Virginia. Farmers could ship their products, produce and goods much more cheaply than before and could go any direction via the connecting railroad. Alexandria became a thriving seaport and manufacturing center. In addition to freight, passengers could go from Washington to Lynchburg in eight hours instead of the three-day travel by stagecoach before the railroad’s completion.
Read more about this topic: Orange And Alexandria Railroad
Famous quotes containing the words antebellum and/or period:
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
“Stupid word, that. Period. In America it means “full stop” like in punctuation. That’s stupid as well. A period isn’t a full stop. It’s a new beginning. I don’t mean all that creativity, life-giving force, earth-mother stuff, I mean it’s a new beginning to the month, relief that you’re not pregnant, when you don’t have to have a child.”
—Michelene Wandor (b. 1940)