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| URN | ns3725 |
|---|---|
| Work Type | Photograph |
| Title | Potomac River Bridge, Sheperdstown, West Virginia |
| Creator | no creator given |
| Subject | Railroad,train |
| Material | Black & White |
| Current Site | CD: NS022 |
| Notes | Negative 6380; Potomac River at Shepherdstown, WV, Information added 1/7/02 as noted: The bridge in the foreground was the highway bridge, or footbridge as they were called in the old days. It was destroyed in the 1936 flood. The tall stone piers beyond it supported the bridge built by the Shenandoah Valley Railroad about 1880. It was dismantled and, it is said, sold to another railroad when the new bridge, in the background, was completed about 1909. The new bridge was part of a realignment project that eliminated a nasty S curve on the Maryland side of the river. A new passenger station for Shepherdstown was also built. I have read that the old bridge also had problems because the water level had dropped 6 feet because the C&O Canal Company let a dam fall into ruin just downstream from the bridges. As a result some of the wood cribbing which formed the foundation for the piers was left xposed to the elements, thus weakening the piers. The N&W had considered repairing the dam, but wisely upgraded by building a completely new bridge. The fact that this bridge is nearing 100 years old shows what good maintenance of such structures can do. 4-8-0''''s were the main motive power on this line when the bridge was built. The construction date of the iron highway bridge was 1889. It replaced a wooden covered bridge which was destroyed in the great flood that year. The stone piers were built in the 1850''''s for the first covered bridge which was burned during the Civil War. I have a photo of the three span post Civil War covered bridge. These bridges were owned by the Maryland and Virginia Bridge Co., so they were toll bridges throughout their existence. Rick Morrison ____________________________________________________ The bridge in the foreground is a highway bridge, so there were only two railroad bridges. The piers are from the original bridge, which was replaced by a bridge which was a little higher (I think I''''m remembering that right) and on a slightly different alignment. They are this close together because they didn''''t do a radical relocation of the approaches. Jim Nichols |
| Format | image/jpeg |
| Date | 19970829 |
| Owner | dla |
| Copyright | dla |
| Source | Norfolk & Western Historical Photograph Collection |
