Construction and Demise
Work started on the line in 1851, the same year as the main line of the Manassas Gap Railroad. The railroad was graded as far as Purcel's Store, including the construction of a tunnel under the Catoctin Mountain along the Goose Creek. Tracks were laid as far as the Old Carolina Road (present day U.S. Route 15).
Construction was halted due to financial troubles of the railroad backers during the Panic of 1857. Any hope of resuming work and completing the line was erased when in 1861 when Confederate troops tore up the tracks as they abandoned Alexandria to establish a line at Manassas Junction.
Today the informed and dedicated historian can still find the railroad bed and tunnel. A well preserved section of roadbed exists between Centreville Road and State Road 28 in Fairfax County, just east of the Sully Plantation historical site.
Read more about this topic: Loudoun Branch Of The Manassas Gap Railroad
Famous quotes containing the word construction:
“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)