Lambert's Point is a point of land on the east shore of the Elizabeth River near the downtown area of the independent city of Norfolk in the South Hampton Roads region of eastern Virginia, United States. It includes a large coal exporting facility and a residential area. The area is south of Old Dominion University.
Lambert's Point was named for Thomas Lambert, who patented 100 acres (400,000 m²) there on the east side of the bay of the Elizabeth River on June 1, 1635, when the territory was still a part of Elizabeth River Shire in colonial Virginia. Lambert was an ensign in the Lower Norfolk County Militia by 1640 and was later a major in the same outfit. He was subsequently a member of the Assembly at Jamestown for Lower Norfolk County in 1652, and by the time of his death in 1671 he was the proud bearer of the title Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lambert. Lambert's Point was located in Norfolk County when that county was formed from Lower Norfolk County in 1691.
The Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad (N&P) was built under the oversight of William Mahone, young civil engineer from Southampton County, Virginia who had been educated in the first graduating class of Virginia Military Institute (VMI). A rail link to the west had long been a dream of Norfolk citizens led by Dr. Francis Mallory. Despite delays, financial constraints, and the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1855, by 1858, young Mahone and his N&P workforce had bridged both the Eastern and Southern Branches of the Elizabeth River, deployed a corduroy roadbed across the northern portion of the Great Dismal Swamp and completed the line west to Petersburg. At the Cockade City, connections could be made with a north-south railroad to Richmond or North Carolina, as well as more importantly, the South Side Railroad to Lynchburg which itself connected with the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T). Eventually, a rail link all the way to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans was thus seen as possible.
Things were looking very favorable for both Norfolk and the new enterprise when operations were completely disrupted by the American Civil War, which was to last five years and do great damage to the railroads. Although the Confederacy lost the war, Mahone emerged as the so-called hero of the Battle of the Crater. He promptly set about leading the efforts to rebuild the N&P and its connecting railroads, funded with money from British bondholders. By 1870, he controlled all three, renamed jointly as the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O). There is ample evidence that Mahone had become aware of the potential wealth represented by untapped bituminous coal reserves in southern West Virginia, and had planned a fourth railroad and acquired land to capitalize upon them. However, the Financial Panic of 1873 forced the AM&O into defaulting on its bonds and delaying any thoughts of expansion. After several years of receivership, the bondholders lost confidence in Mahone and he lost control of the AM&O. It operated under receivership for a number of years and Mahone struggled to obtain adequate financing to regain control. Finally, in 1881, it was sold at auction, but Mahone was outbid. Instead, Philadelphia interests won and renamed as the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W). (Mahone went on to a career in Virginia and national politics and saw to it that some of the proceeds from the sale of the state's portion of the investment in what had been "his" railroad went to build a school for blacks which ultimately became Virginia State University (VSU), near Petersburg).
The new Philadelphia owners were also keenly aware of the opportunities represented by southern West Virginia coal, where they owned much land. Soon, under the leadership of Frederick J. Kimball, they set about extending their lines west from the New River Valley to reach them. The first carload of coal arrived in Norfolk and Western's Eastern Branch Terminal in 1883. Many more were to follow, and soon it was apparent that a larger facility for loading the coal onto ships would be needed. Land was acquired in Norfolk County just outside the City of Norfolk on the harbor. Facilities were developed there, and the first of many coal piers to come opened at Lambert's Point in 1886. The N&W tracks were extended directly to the new coal piers at Lambert's Point upon their completion. A residential section was also developed to house the families of the workers. Many early residents of Lambert's Point were involved in the coal industry. By 1900, Norfolk was the leading coal exporting port on the East Coast. The area including Lambert's Point was annexed by the city of Norfolk in 1911. [1]
Norfolk and Western expanded greatly, and in the 1980s, the Class 1 railroad became part of Norfolk Southern Corporation, a Fortune 500 Company headquartered in Norfolk. The headquarters moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 2018. [2]
Lambert's Point is the home of Norfolk Southern's Pier 6, the largest and fastest transloading facility for coal in the Northern Hemisphere. The facility's annual throughput capacity is rated at 48 million tons. [3] Unlike most facilities of its kind, Lambert's Point assembles all cargo in railcars and loads direct to vessel, rather than utilizing ground storage. The system is remarkably versatile due to its ability to blend individual lots up to five ways (a five-track blend), yet in increments as small as 100 tons. The 1850 pier has three berths, two for loading and a third which acts as a layberth, as well as two shiploaders. The facility can accommodate approximately 6,200 loaded railcars, and at full capacity, its dual twin rotary dumpers (capable of dumping up to four cars simultaneously) can dump 1,200 cars per day.
The N&W moved their Norfolk passenger station from Norfolk Terminal Station to a new structure near Lambert's Point in 1962. The station, at 2200 Redgate Avenue, [4] remained in use under the N&W until 1971, then by the Amtrak Mountaineer from 1975 to 1977.
| Preceding station |  Amtrak | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suffolk toward Chicago | Mountaineer | Terminus | ||
Today, adjacent port facilities for merchandise are operated by Lamberts Point Docks, Inc., a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern.
The United States Navy maintains the Lambert's Point Deperming Station, a magnetic silencing station located in the Elizabeth River off Lambert's Point. It is used by navy ships to reduce their magnetic signature, making them less vulnerable to certain types of mines. With fewer coal mines in West Virginia, coal traffic from the Blue Ridge Division, Bluefield, West Virginia, has decreased somewhat.[ quantify ]
Princeton, is a city in and the county seat of Mercer County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 5,872 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Bluefield micropolitan area. The city hosts the Princeton WhistlePigs baseball club of the Appalachian League.
The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads.
The Norfolk and Western Railway, commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precision Transportation"; it had a variety of nicknames, including "King Coal" and "British Railway of America". In 1986, N&W merged with Southern Railway to form today’s Norfolk Southern Railway.
William Mahone was an American civil engineer, railroad executive, Confederate States Army general, and Virginia politician.
Frederick James Kimball was a civil engineer. He was an early president of the Norfolk and Western Railway and helped develop the Pocahontas coalfields in Virginia and West Virginia.
Otelia Butler Mahone from Smithfield, Virginia was a nurse during the American Civil War and the wife of Confederate Major General William Mahone, who was a civil engineer, teacher, railroad builder, and Senator in the United States Congress. Popularly known in Virginia as the "Hero of the Battle of the Crater" during and after the Civil War, her small-of-stature husband was nicknamed "Little Billy." An illustrious "character" in her own right, strong-willed Otelia Butler Mahone became almost as well known as her famous husband. She is credited by local legend with the naming of the towns of Windsor, Ivor, Wakefield, Waverly and Disputanta along the famous 52-mile tangent railroad tracks engineered and built by her husband between the cities of Suffolk and Petersburg. When he led the formation of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O) from three trunk lines across the southern tier of Virginia in 1870, wags claimed the initials stood for "All Mine and Otelia's."
Disputanta is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George County, Virginia, United States in the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The postal ZIP Code of Disputanta, Virginia is 23842. It was first listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 373.
The Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad was built between Norfolk and Petersburg, Virginia and was completed by 1858. The line was 85 miles (137 km) of 5 ft track gauge.
Francis Mallory was an American naval officer, physician, and railroad executive, who as a Whig politician served two terms in the United States House of Representatives representing Virginia's 1st congressional district. He later served two terms in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Norfolk.
The Southside Railroad was formed in Virginia in 1846. Construction was begun in 1849 and completed in 1854. The 5 ft gauge railroad connected City Point, a port on the James River with the farm country south and west of Petersburg, Virginia, to Lynchburg, Virginia, a distance of about 132 miles (212 km).
Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O) was formed in 1870 in Virginia from three east–west railroads which traversed across the southern portion of the state. Organized and led by former Confederate general William Mahone (1826-1895), the 428-mile (689 km) line linked Norfolk with Bristol, Virginia by way of Suffolk, Petersburg, Lynchburg, and Salem. The AM&O was promoted as a trade link to the west, and further expansion was envisioned with the goal of increasing Virginia's Ohio Valley and Mississippi Valley commerce. It was heavily backed by investors from England and Scotland.
The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad was an historic 5 ft gauge railroad in the Southern United States, much of which is incorporated into the modern Norfolk Southern Railway. It played a strategic role in supplying the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
The Norfolk Southern Railway was the final name of a railroad that ran from Norfolk, Virginia, southwest and west to Charlotte, North Carolina. It was acquired by the Southern Railway in 1974, which merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1982 to form the current Norfolk Southern Railway.
Transportation in the Commonwealth of Virginia is by land, sea and air. Virginia's extensive network of highways and railroads were developed and built over a period almost 400 years, beginning almost immediately after the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and often incorporating old established trails of the Native Americans.
A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship.
The Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad was organized in 1833 to extend from the area of the rapids of the Roanoke River at its fall line near Weldon, North Carolina to Portsmouth, Virginia, across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk on the harbor of Hampton Roads.
The Pocahontas was one of the named passenger trains of the Norfolk and Western Railway. It was an overnight train between Norfolk, Virginia, and Cincinnati, Ohio, with a through-car to and from Chicago, Illinois. The Pocahontas ran from November 1926 until May 1971.
Lambert's Point Deperming Station is a United States Navy deperming facility located in the Elizabeth River just off Lambert's Point, Norfolk, Virginia, United States. It was built in the mid-1940s and services the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
U.S. Route 460 (US 460) in Virginia runs west-east through the southern part of the Commonwealth. The road has two separate pieces in Virginia, joined by a relatively short section in West Virginia. Most of US 460 is a four-lane divided highway and is a major artery in the southern third of the state. From Petersburg to Suffolk, US 460 is a four-lane non-divided highway. It is a popular alternative to Interstate 64 (I-64) when going from Richmond and other points in central Virginia to the Currituck Sound and Outer Banks of North Carolina, avoiding the congestion and tunnels of the more northerly I-64 corridor. The road passes through several small towns that built up at stops along the railroad line.
