Franconia Road Overpass
GPS Coordinates: 38.7800136, -77.1565088
Closest Address: 6291 Franconia Road, Alexandria, VA 22310

Here follows an excerpt from Nathaniel Lee's book, "The Iron Road of Franconia" about the railroad:
Another important bridge looks over the former at-grade crossing of Franconia Road at the tracks next to Franconia Station. Due to the winding, curving track through this area and steep embankments, it was a dangerous crossing where trains would often speed through with little or no warning. It took the deaths of four people at this crossing for Fairfax County to realize the importance of installing a wooden bridge here in 1905, and replacing it with a more modern steel bridge in 1918.
Especially heartbreaking is the story of the Gorham family of Franconia. On the afternoon of October 13, 1904, Mary Gorham was walking back home from a day's work in the Moore family cornfield. Her son, Samuel, was walking with her when he suffered an epileptic seizure causing him to fall out onto the tracks in front of a speeding locomotive at Franconia Station. In an incredible act of bravery, Mary Gorham sacrificed her own life for that of her son by pushing him out of the path of the oncoming train, only to be struck herself. She was 69 years old at the time.
The Richmond-Washington Company incorporated on September 5, 1901 as a holding company owning both the RF&P Railroad and the Washington Southern Railway. Freight traffic over the new Richmond-Washington Line increased quickly, and the train dispatchers running the show from Richmond found that the single track they had was inadequate for the number of trains they wanted to run. The number of trains allowed on a single track at the same time is severely limited because trains cannot run too close to each other without risking a collision. For this reason, they added a second track along the entire line between Richmond and Washington in a process called "double tracking." They also realigned the tracks onto the course they follow to the present day during this four-year construction project between 1903 and 1907. They eliminated or smoothed out sharp curves and reduced hills in grade, including lowering the peak of Franconia Hill underneath Franconia Road by a staggering twenty feet. You can still see this massive cut today by looking down at the railroad from the Franconia Road overpass along Fleet Drive. They put almost the entire line of track in a new location between Quantico and Alexandria, all in an effort to speed up transit times along the line.