The Orange and Alexandria Railroad Trestle (Historical Marker)

Here is the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

The Orange And Alexandria Railroad Trestle

The original bridge crossing Accotink Creek was built in 1851 as part of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. During the Civil War the wooden trestle was an attractive target for Confederate soldiers. In his 28 Dec. 1862 raid on Burke's Station, Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart sent twelve men under the command of Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee to burn the trestle. Although termed an "inconsiderable structure" by the Union press, the raid was alarming to many because of its close proximity to Alexandria. The trestle was quickly rebuilt, allowing the Union to continue transporting vital supplies along the line for the remainder of the war.

Marker Erected 2003 by Fairfax County History Commission.

Editor's note: The current railroad bridge is on a different alignment from the old trestle.

Additional Information - Not on the marker: ​One of the men in the group ordered to burn the bridge at Accotink was John Fontaine, who had been appointed assistant surgeon of the Volunteer Forces of Virginia in 1861 when he was 21 years old. He also served as a dentist to the Confedrates and as a veterinarian to their horses. In May 1864, he was one of the doctors who attended to Gen. J.E.B. Stuart who had been mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern. Fontaine was killed four months later during the siege of Petersburg. Information attributed to Mary Lipsey, Fairfax County History Commission and Jon Vrana, Burke Historical Society​.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Clio project website as written by Benjamin Woodard:

The original, wooden Orange and Alexandria Railroad trestle over Accotink Creek was built in 1851. The bridge was an important target during the Civil War; while it was most famously burned during Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart’s Christmas Raid of 1862, it was also the site of many other rebel raids. The tracks on each side of it were moved in the early 1900s, and a new, iron bridge was built in 1917. A concrete and steel bridge, the one that stands there today, was built sometime later. In 1918, the creek was dammed by the US Army Corps of Engineers to supply water to Camp A.A. Humphreys (now Fort Belvoir). The dam was torn out in 1922 after it was realized that it was damaging the railroad bridge. A new dam was built in 1943. The surrounding land was eventually purchased by the Fairfax County Park Authority, who operate it as Lake Accotink Park. The current bridge is owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway but used by the Virginia Railway Express and Amtrak.

The original, wooden trestle over Accotink Creek was constructed most likely using slave labor for the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. The railroad had been chartered in 1848 to connect Alexandria with the Virginia Central Railroad in Gordonsville, which it reached in March 1853. By 1860, it stretched to Lynchburg, where it tied in with the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. It grew the communities along its route and was important in the development of northern Virginia. It also became an important strategic target during the Civil War—battles were fought near Manassas Junction and Bristoe and Brandy Stations. The railroad’s Alexandria office was seized on May 29th, 1861, the day after Virginia’s secession; however, the Confederates still managed to take most of the rolling stock. The Union put much of the rest of the railroad under the US Military Railroad System.

The most famous action at the bridge was during General J.E.B. Stuart’s Christmas Raid of 1862. Stuart and his men had raided Dumfries and Occoquan, then crossed the Occoquan River on December 27th, 1862, and headed towards Burke’s Station. Most of the logistical forces in the area had been pulled back to Fairfax Courthouse (now Fairfax City) in anticipation of Stuart’s raid. However, two trains were still in the area; J.A. Flagg, the telegrapher at Burke’s Station, was warned that Stuart’s forces were only a few miles away and forwarded this warning to the two conductors, who were able to take their trains back across the Accotink Bridge and to Alexandria just in time. Stuart successfully took Burke’s Station around seven o’clock in the evening on December 28th. Shortly thereafter, he sent Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee (Robert E. Lee’s nephew), Surgeon John B. Fontaine, Lieutenant John Lee, and ten men to burn the bridge over Accotink Creek. They did, but, according to Union reports, the “inconsiderable structure” was not significantly damaged and was easily repaired. While on their way to rendezvous with the main force at the Little River Turnpike, General Lee’s band captured one Union lieutenant and three men.

The bridge was used by the Union, and targeted by the Confederacy, for the rest of the war. Major John S. Mosby’s Rangers and local civilians were known to hide in the culverts under the rail bed before tearing up tracks or attempting to derail passing trains. The 155th New York and 4th Delaware were eventually stationed there to protect the strategically vital railroad.

After the war, the railroad was in serious disrepair. It ended up passing under control of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1873, then the Southern Railway in 1894. Southern moved the tracks in the early 1900s and built a new, iron bridge in 1917. In 1918, the US Army Corps of Engineers built “Springfield Dam” on Accotink Creek to supply water to the new base at Camp A.A. Humphreys (now Fort Belvoir). It created a 110-acre, 23-foot-deep lake. However, the dam was torn out in 1922 after it was revealed that it was threatening the railroad bridge. Another dam was built in 1943.

The land was purchased by the Fairfax County Park Authority in 1965. Today, it is the site of the 493-acre Lake Accotink Park, which offers all kinds of outdoor activities, including hiking, boating, picnicking, mini golf, volleyball, basketball, camps and classes, and nature programs, as well as a carousel.

The modern bridge was built out of concrete and steel sometime after the 1917 bridge. It is still owned by what is now the Norfolk Southern Railway, but it is used by the Virginia Railway Express and Amtrak. While the current bridge stands in approximately the same location as the original, the tracks sat on what is now Lake Accotink Road and the Lake Accotink trail. Many of the culverts, mentioned above as sites for Confederate ambushes, still survive under the road and trail and can be explored. One of the culverts was replaced by the Fairfax County Park Authority in 2017 after an archaeological excavation, which discovered two pieces of the original track in addition to documenting the original stones of the culvert.


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Here follows an excerpt about the railroad from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The Orange and Alexandria Railroad (O&A) was a railroad in Virginia, United States. Chartered in 1848, it eventually extended from Alexandria to Gordonsville, with another section from Charlottesville to Lynchburg. The road played a crucial role in the American Civil War, saw the first of many mergers in 1867, and eventually became an important part of the modern-day Norfolk Southern rail system.

Antebellum period:
The Virginia General Assembly issued a charter to the O&A on May 28, 1848, to run from Alexandria to Gordonsville. Construction began in 1850 and was completed in April 1854, when it connected with the Virginia Central Railroad in Orange County. Its longtime president was John S. Barbour Jr., a Virginia lawyer, part-time delegate and son of U.S. Representative John Strode Barbour.

In 1854, the General Assembly granted the O&A the right to build southward from Charlottesville to Lynchburg. O&A paid for trackage rights over Virginia Central tracks from Gordonsville to Charlottesville. In 1860, the southern extension was completed, including lucrative connections to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and the South Side Railroad. The O&A also connected with the Manassas Gap Railroad (chartered in 1850), at Tudor Hall (today named Manassas for this junction) which gave it access to the Shenandoah Valley.

The railroad boosted Virginia commerce. Farmers from Virginia's Piedmont region, and later, the Shenandoah Valley could more cheaply ship their products, produce, and goods to the markets of Washington, D.C., and Richmond, and to ocean-going vessels berthed at the Potomac River port of Alexandria. Alexandria, Richmond, and Lynchburg also became manufacturing centers. Passengers could travel from Washington to Lynchburg in eight hours instead of enduring a three-day stagecoach journey.

American Civil War:
The O&A was strategically important during the Civil War (1861–1865) and was repeatedly fought over and wrecked. In connection with the Virginia Central, it was the only rail link between the belligerents' capitals at Washington and Richmond. An 1861 Union Army attempt to gain control of Manassas Junction led to the First Battle of Bull Run, and the junction traded hands numerous times during the war. Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson attacked it in the Battle of Manassas Station Operations to draw the Union into the 1862 Second Battle of Bull Run. The 1863 Battle of Brandy Station and Second Battle of Rappahannock Station were also fought near the railroad line.

Reconstruction:
The railroad entered Reconstruction in dire shape, with much of its track ripped up and most of its rolling stock destroyed. However, Barbour rebuilt the railroad with the help of various politically connected financiers and his brother-in-law J.S.B. Thompson. In 1867, the O&A merged with the Manassas Gap Railroad (led by Edward Carrington Marshall) to become the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad.

After the Panic of 1873, the railroad was consolidated into the Virginia Midland Railway, which was controlled by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It later became part of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which went bankrupt in the Panic of 1893. The following year it was merged into the Southern Railway.

A cutoff between Orange and Charlottesville was incorporated in 1876 as the Charlottesville and Rapidan Railroad and opened in 1880. The Southern Railway acquired the line in 1914.

Modern Times:
Most of the O&A right-of-way is now the Washington District line of the Norfolk Southern Railway. The main exceptions are a short segment between Orange and Gordonsville, which is part of the similarly named Washington Subdivision of the Buckingham Branch Railroad; and the easternmost portion that traveled through Old Town Alexandria to its waterfront, which no longer exists aside from the Hoofs Run Bridge and the Wilkes Street Tunnel.

Parts of the former O&A right-of-way are also used by Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express (VRE).