the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad connected Fredericksburg-Quantico between 1872-1890
Source: Library of Congress, Map of the Pennsylvania, Reading, and Lehigh Valley Railroads, and their connections
the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad connected Fredericksburg-Quantico between 1872-1890
Source: Library of Congress, Map of the Pennsylvania, Reading, and Lehigh Valley Railroads, and their connections
The General Assembly initially chartered the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad in 1851, but no track was built between those cities before the start of the Civil War.
The Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac obtained an amendment to its charter in 1856, giving that company authority to extend its track north to Manassas Junction. That amendment included authorization to build track as far north as Occoquan.1
Charles Minor Blackford, Legal History of the Virginia Midland Railway Co., and of the Companies which Built Its Lines of Road, J.P. Bell, 1881, p.11, https://books.google.com/books?id=vV4EAAAAMAAJ (last checked June 20, 2020)
Had it been built, there would have been a direct railroad connection between Washington and Richmond. A Union Army marching to the capital of the Confederate States of America in 1861 would not have headed west along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad to Manassas.
In 1864, in the middle of the Civil War, the General Assembly of the Restored Government of Virginia granted a new charter for the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway. The investors who obtained the charter were also maneuvering to seize control of the Alexandria and Washington Railroad. The Confederate-sympathizing owners of the Alexandria and Washington Railroad had fled Alexandria when Union forces occupied it in 1861. The new owners purchased it in bankruptcy court, then organized the Washington, Alexandria and Georgetown Railroad to replace the Alexandria and Washington Railroad.
For the last two years of the Civil War, the Washington, Alexandria and Georgetown Railroad operated between Alexandria and the depot in the District of Columbia. In state court after the war ended, the earlier owners of the railroad regained control of the track between Long Bridge and Alexandria and allied with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. That spurred the interst of the rival Pennsylvania Railroad in the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway as an alternative.
The 1864 charter for Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway required construction to begin with 5 years. The railtoad arranged a mortgage in 1866, but did not construct any track. The charter thus expired in 1869, but in 1870 the Pennsylvania Railroad got the General Assembly to extend the deadline.
The Pennsylvania Railroad gained control over access in Washington, DC to the Long Bridge in 1870, and over the Alexandria and Washington Railroad and the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway. Technically, trustees representing the bondholders who had financed construction of the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway took control as soon as it opened in 1872. Those trustees acted as agents for the Pennsylvania Railroad and its subsidiaries.
Control of the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway allowed the Pennsylvania Railroad to block plans of the rival Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to extend its system south into Virginia. That control also ensured that the Pennnsylvania Railroad would be the only one allowed to build south and connect with the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad.
The 1870 Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway charter modified the northern endpoint of the line. It authorized construction to start at the south end of Long Bridge, rather than at the southern end of the Alexandria and Washington Railway in Alexandria. In 1872, the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad completed track parallel to the Alexandria and Washington Railroad between the Potomac River and Alexandria, and then built further south to Quantico.
When the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad rebuilt after the Civil War, the northern end of its track had been completed again at Aquia Landing. Until 1872, between Aquia Landing and Alexandria, there was no track. Passengers and freight had to transfer to Potomac River steamboats in order to complete the trip to Washington.
the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad ended at Aquia Landing until 1872
Source: Library of Congress, Map of n. eastern Virginia and vicinity of Washington ("McDowell Map," 1862)
The Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad considered building north from Fredericksburg to Quantico, then bending westward to cross through Prince William County. One proposed route connected to the county seat at Brentsville, then went north to a junction with the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad at the new town of Manassas.1 Facebook post, Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation, September 30, 2022, https://www.facebook.com/295212024341/posts/pfbid0zJcfNv3WFnmd7kuhFc8kdygGiJWctFckweb8ZAefTHp2aBSJNN8X2Jx3cBAuJnRdl/?sfnsn=mo (last checked October 2, 2022)
In 1872 the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad built 10 miles of track north to Quantico, and completed another 1.7 miles to Quantico using the charter of the Potomac Railroad.
The Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway built south 32 miles from the Potomac River to Quantico. Once the two railroads joined in 1872, trains could run directly between Fredericksburg-Alexandria for the first time.
the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway parallelled the original Orange and Alexandria Railroad (later Virginia Midland) along Cameron Run
Source: Library of Congress, Baist's map of the vicinity of Washington D.C. (1904)
the survey of the railroad bridge across Neabsco Creek was done in 1871 in the name of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad
Source: National Archives, Map of Neabsco Bay, Virginia (1871)
When the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad reached Quantico, it moved its steamboat landing from Aquia Creek to Quantico. The RF&P Railroad continued to operate steamboats between Quantico-Washington until 1877. That increased the railroad's revenue, but passengers and freight shippers preferred to transfer at Quantico to the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, operated he trains on the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway and provided a more-convenient railroad connection from Quantico to Washington DC.1
Charles Thomas, "The Development of the Railroads in Washington," The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, Number 105 (October 1961), p.28 _________, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43520286; Fairfax Harrison, A History of the Legal Development of the Railroad System of Southern Railway Company, 1901, p.1476, pp.1479-81, pp.1500-1501, https://books.google.com/books/about/A_History_of_the_Legal_Development_of_th.html?id=0IkjAQAAMAAJ; "French v. Hay," 89 U.S. 22 Wall. 250 250 (1874), https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/89/250/ (last checked August 2, 2020)
the Pennsylvania Railroad arranged for the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway to build from Alexandria south to Quantico in 1872
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Mount Vernon 1:125,000 topographic quadrangle (1890)
The Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway and the Alexandria and Washington Railroad were consolidated in 1890 into the Washington Southern Railway. The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad acquired the Washington Southern Railway in 1901, and it became part of the CSX in 1991.1
"Annual Report of the State Corporation Commission of Virginia. Compilations from Returns of Railroads, Canals, Electric Railways and Other Corporate Companies," Virginia State Corporation Commission, 1917, p.654, https://books.google.com/books?id=BN8lAQAAIAAJ (last checked June 30, 2020)
The original trestles on the route were replaced by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad. The last to be replaced was the bridge across Powells Creek; a new concrete structure was built there in 1928. The pilings of the 1872 wooden bridge are still in the creekbed, and anglers are well aware that gear can get snagged and lost on them today.1
Facebook post, Friends of Leesylvania State Park, March 30, 2022, https://www.facebook.com/friendsofleesylvania (last checked March 30, 2022)
pilings from the 1872 bridge over Powells Creek are exposed during very low tides
Source: Friends of Leesylvania State Park, Facebook post (March 30, 2022)