Founding and Early History
Built in the 1850s, the V&T ran completely through southwestern Virginia along the length of the Great Valley of Virginia. The railroad extended westward from Lynchburg, through a gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains near the town of Big Lick (the present-day city of Roanoke); there, it turned southwestward and followed the Great Valley to Bristol, a total distance of 204 miles.
After the Virginia government refused to fund its construction, the city of Lynchburg incorporated the railroad on March 24, 1848, as the Lynchburg and Tennessee Railroad. Construction of the road bed began in 1850, and on February 18, 1852, the railroad's first locomotive (the "Virginia") was tested when it steamed out of Lynchburg's James River basin, climbing the nearby low mountains. Regular freight service was initiated not long afterwards. Construction of the railroad's entire length to Bristol was completed on October 1, 1856.
During the Civil War, the railroad served as a key supply, food and troop movement route for the Confederate States Army, particularly from the capital of Richmond to the interior at Chattanooga, Tennessee. Among the vital transportation services provided by the V&T was to move raw materials from the copper mines near Cleveland, Tennessee, the lead mines near Bristol, the salt works at Saltville, Virginia and saltpeter caves throughout the region. Union forces finally captured much of the railroad and destroyed tracks and rolling stock in late 1864, although service was periodically interrupted by a series of cavalry raids earlier in the war.
Read more about this topic: Virginia And Tennessee Railroad
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