Jamestown Exposition: Helping A Neighbor
Sewell's Point had been selected by the Jamestown Exposition Company for the international exposition on a mile-long site fronting on Hampton Roads right next to the Tidewater Railway property. The choice of location was politically correct: it was almost an equal distance from the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News and Hampton.
A big plus for the site selection for the Exposition organizers was favorable access by water. A naval review was to be a major feature of the Exposition. Of course, one downside to the location was that the rural and sparely populated location was hard to reach by land. However, the new railroad was soon to be laying tracks nearby and could be relied upon to help transport the millions of attendees anticipated on land adjacent to the site where work had already begin on the new coal pier.
On April 26, 1907, US President Theodore Roosevelt opened the exposition. Mark Twain was another honored guest, arriving with his friend Henry Rogers on the latter's yacht Kanawha. At the exposition, Colonel Page, president of the new Virginian Railway next door, served as Chief of International Jury of Awards, Mines and Metallurgy. In addition to President Roosevelt, the VGN and the original Norfolk Southern Railway transported many of the 3 million persons who attended before the Exposition closed on December 1, 1907.
See Also article Jamestown Exposition
Read more about this topic: Building The Virginian Railway
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