Swift Creek Rail Bridge

Railroad Bridge over Swift Creek
Railroad Bridge over Swift Creek
	Western Abutment of the Bright Hope Railroad Bridge over Swift Creek
Coordinates	37°21′01″N77°30′41″W / 37.3502°N 77.5113°W Coordinates: 37°21′01″N77°30′41″W / 37.3502°N 77.5113°W
Carries	Steam locomotives.
Crosses	Swift Creek (Virginia)
Locale	Chesterfield County, Virginia
Owner	Clover Hill Railroad, Brighthope Railway, Farmville and Powhatan Railroad,and then Tidewater and Western Railroad
Characteristics
Design	Truss bridge
Material	Granite
Total length	30 ft. [1]
Width	20 ft.
No. of spans	1
No. of lanes	1
Rail characteristics
Track gauge	Standard, 3 ft (914 mm) after 1881
History
Construction end	c.1841
Closed	1917
Statistics
Daily traffic	2 Passenger or passenger and freight trains each way six days a week. Up to six coal trains each way daily.
	The Clover Hill Railroad over Swift Creek is shown in southern Chesterfield, Virginia, on a map drawn by the Confederate Army for 1861.

Last updated August 04, 2019

The Swift Creek Rail Bridge was a granite and iron truss bridge over Swift Creek in Virginia. The Tidewater and Western Railroad included a bridge over Swift Creek that had been built by an earlier railroad company, the Clover Hill Railroad. The bridge was used during the whole time the four railroad companies operated rails over the bridge. The metal on the bridge was sold as part of foreclosure of the final company in 1917.

Truss bridge Bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss

A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements usually forming triangular units. The connected elements may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges. The basic types of truss bridges shown in this article have simple designs which could be easily analyzed by 19th and early 20th-century engineers. A truss bridge is economical to construct because it uses materials efficiently.

Swift Creek is a 44.9-mile-long (72.3 km) river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It rises west of Richmond in Powhatan County and flows southeast, eventually forming the northern boundary of Colonial Heights, where it joins the Appomattox River.

The Clover Hill Railroad was a railroad company that operated for 36 years in central Virginia near Richmond. The railroad was created to carry coal most efficiently from the Clover Hill Pits in Winterpock, Virginia, to further transportation points in Chester, Virginia, where it could sold for a better price than on the Appomattox River in the Piedmont region. This made the railroad important to the Confederacy in the Civil War to ensure a supply of coal for munitions and iron working. The mines were dangerous for the miners, and many accidents occurred. The railroad had to be sold when coal mining declined so that new owners could find other uses for the railroad.

Geography and settings

The Swift Creek Rail Bridge in Chesterfield County crossed Swift Creek, one of the two major creeks in the County. The Bridge crossed the creek, east of Carver Heights Drive, Chester, past a landfill and behind a housing complex west of Bright Hope Road, which is near Beach Road. The creek is narrow, because this point is west, upstream, of the fall line and the creek is not tidal here.

Chesterfield County is a county located just south of Richmond in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north and the Appomattox River to the south. Its county seat is Chesterfield Court House.

Chester is a census-designated place (CDP) in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. The population was 20,987 at the 2010 census.

The Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line, or Fall Zone, is a 900-mile (1,400 km) escarpment where the Piedmont and Atlantic coastal plain meet in the eastern United States. Much of the Atlantic Seaboard fall line passes through areas where no evidence of faulting is present.

Architecture

The remains of the bridge are granite abutments that are twenty feet wide indicating that it was a Truss Bridge. The bridge was one thirty foot span. The abutments were made of granite that was mined using star drills as shown by the drill holes. The Petersburg granite is readily available in the area.

In engineering, abutment refers to the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam whereon the structure's superstructure rests or contacts. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the bridge, as well as acting as retaining walls to resist lateral movement of the earthen fill of the bridge approach. Multi-span bridges require piers to support ends of spans unsupported by abutments. Dam abutments are generally either side of a valley or gorge but may be artificial in order to support arch dams such as Kurobe Dam in Japan.

History

The Swift Creek Rail Bridge was owned by four railroads.

Clover Hill Railroad

The bridge was constructed for the Clover Hill Railroad and Mining Company to get coal trains over Swift Creek in 1841. The tracks were standard gauge at that time. The State of Virginia declared this bridge sound in 1878.^[2]^[3]

Brighthope Railway

The Brighthope Railway bought the Clover Hill in bankruptcy and became the new owners of the bridge in 1877. The new owners increased passenger travel. In, 1881, the Brighthope owners converted the gauge to narrow gauge.^[4]

In 1886, Randolph Harrison, of the Virginia department of Agriculture, cited Cumberland Mining Company, stating that the United States had purchased stock in the Brighthope Railway. He continued by citing their assertion that extending the railway into Cumberland would increase the value of farms there because they could sell consumer agricultural products such as fruit, dairy and vegetables to all markets of Virginia. The Brighthope Railway was founded in 1877 by the creditors of the Clover Hill Railroad who bought that railroad when the Clover Hill Railroad went bankrupt. The Brighthope Railway continued in the role of the Clover Hill Railroad, hauling coal from the Clover Hill Pits at Winterpock, Virginia. In addition to coal, the Bright Hope Railway transported timber and agricultural products and had passenger service. The Bright Hope Railway was narrowed from standard gauge to narrow gauge and rerouted in 1881. In 1886, much of the southern rails we changed to standard gauge. The Brighthope Railway was not changed back.

Farmville and Powhatan Railroad

The Farmville and Powhatan Railroad became the new owners in 1884. The Farmville and Powhatan allowed a telegraph to be added to the rails, which would have had a powered telegraph line across the bridge.

In 1886, Randolph Harrison, of the Virginia department of Agriculture, cited Cumberland Mining Company, stating that businessmen would soon open a hotel at Lithia Springs, Farmville, VA for people seeking the healing waters. The Brighthope railway would be extended to bring them there. But instead, the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad Company built the narrow gauge rails through Cumberland County and the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad Company bought the Brighthope Railway, so the Farmville and Powhatan Railroad made the connection. In 1890, Beach Station was built with a railroad depot, some railroad shanties, a general store and an owner's house, the George Perdue House as a stop on the line.

Tidewater and Western Railroad

The Tidewater and Western Railroad bought the bankrupt Farmville and Powhatan in 1905 and went bankrupt themselves in 1917. Creditors sold the rails and other assets to the World War One Effort in France. Only the granite abutments remain today. Another bridge takes Beach Road across Swift Creek. A residential road named Bright Hope is nearby.

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References

↑ Virginia. Office of the Railroad Commissioner (1902). Annual Report of the Railroad Commissioner of the State of Virginia. R.F. Walker, Superintendent Pub. Print. pp. 302–314.
↑ Virginia. Railroad Commissioner (1878). Annual Report of the Railroad Commissioner of the State of Virginia. R.F. Walker, superintendent public printing. pp. 70–.
↑ Virginia. State Corporation Commission (1917). Annual Report of the State Corporation Commission of Virginia: Compilations from Returns of Railroads, Canals, Electric Railways and Other Corporate Companies. J.H. O'Bannon, Superintendent of Public Printing. pp. 973–.
↑ George Woodman Hilton (1990). American Narrow Gauge Railroads. Stanford University Press. pp. 543–. ISBN 978-0-8047-1731-1.

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[Commissioner1902-1] Virginia. Office of the Railroad Commissioner (1902). Annual Report of the Railroad Commissioner of the State of Virginia. R.F. Walker, Superintendent Pub. Print. pp. 302–314.

[Commissioner1878-2] Virginia. Railroad Commissioner (1878). Annual Report of the Railroad Commissioner of the State of Virginia. R.F. Walker, superintendent public printing. pp. 70–.

[Commission1917-3] Virginia. State Corporation Commission (1917). Annual Report of the State Corporation Commission of Virginia: Compilations from Returns of Railroads, Canals, Electric Railways and Other Corporate Companies. J.H. O'Bannon, Superintendent of Public Printing. pp. 973–.

[Hilton1990-4] George Woodman Hilton (1990). American Narrow Gauge Railroads. Stanford University Press. pp. 543–. ISBN 978-0-8047-1731-1.