(no Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges;
Satellite)
Today's CSX bridge.
1842 Bridge
Because the bridge uses the truss design of a covered bridge, I added the label "bridgeCovered" even though it is not covered.
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Bridges Now and Then posted
"Potomac Creek Bridge, Aquia Creek & Fredericksburg Railroad, perspective view, April 12, 1863 " (LOC) |
I looked for the above photo on LoC to provide a proper acknowledgement. I did not find it, but I did find two more photos. The LoC webpages confirm that these images were photographs. I wonder how long those workers had to stand still given the photographic technology of the 1860s.
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LC-DIG-ppmsca-07299
Potomac Creek Bridge, Aquia Creek & Fredericksburgh Railroad, April 18, 1863
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LC-DIG-ppmsca-11744
Potomac Creek Bridge, Aquia Creek & Fredericksburgh [sic] Railroad, April 18,1863 |
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Michael Thomas Harvey posted
Potomac Creek bridge c1860 |
1862 Bridge
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Tim Smith commented on Michael's post
This was before the "Beanpoles and cornstalks" bridge. This was the original bridge that was built in 1842, but was destroyed in 1862 by the retreating Confederate Army. That same year the United States Military Railroad was formed under the command of Union General Herman Haupt who had been a railroad construction engineer in civilian life. After the 1862 destruction, Haupt, using common infantry soldiers untrained in construction, harvested two million feet of local lumber and constructed a serviceable replacement bridge in only nine days. Construction of this bridge prompted president Abraham Lincoln to quip "That man Haupt has built a bridge four hundred feet [122m] long and one hundred feet [30.5m] high, across Potomac Creek, on which loaded trains are passing every hour, and upon my word, gentlemen, there is nothing in it but cornstalks and beanpoles." This bridge stood until June 1863. The Union Army built as many as four railroad bridges atop the same abutment over the remaining years of the war. Here is the first replacement bridge. |
usmrr has a lot more information on Herman Haupt and the U.S. Military Railroads.
The ellipses in the dates in the title are because the bridge was rebuilt about four more times during the Civil War. "Around 1899, the bridge was replaced and the south abutment and its approaching right-of-way were abandoned." [
wikipedia]
Because the south approach was moved, I checked it out.
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| 1894/98 Fredericksburg Quad @ 125,000 |
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| 1943/61 Fredericksburg Quad @ 24,000 |
This image uses a feature of the map viewer that allow a blend of the two maps.
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| A blend of the two maps. |
Today's VA-625 (Leeland Road) was built on the RoW of the old approach until it got near the creek and turned East under the trestle.
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