Rating:
4 votes

NS - James River Trestle

Lynchburg, Virginia, and Amherst County, Virginia

Photos 

N&W J Class #611 on James R. Trestle 9/6/82

Last trip of N&W 611 inaugural return to steam weekend, Labor Day, 1982, enroute to Alexandria, VA from Roanoke, VA.

Photo taken by Paul Woodring

Enlarge

BH Photo #250688

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Deck plate girder bridge over James River on Norfolk Southern Railroad
Location
Lynchburg, Virginia, and Amherst County, Virginia
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1911
Railroads
- Norfolk Southern Railway (NS)
- Southern Railway (SOU)
Design
Deck plate girder
Approximate latitude, longitude
+37.44277, -79.16562   (decimal degrees)
37°26'34" N, 79°09'56" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
17/662271/4145571 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Lynchburg
Inventory number
BH 49601 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Amherst County, Virginia (23)
Built 1911 (785)
Built during 1910s (9,641)
County line crossing (533)
Deck girder (5,753)
Girder (10,245)
James River (Virginia) (21)
Lynchburg, Virginia (39)
Norfolk Southern Railway (1,919)
 Open (39,895)
Owned by railroad (12,432)
Plate girder (7,933)
Railroad (15,437)
Southern Railway (362)
Steel Trestle (151)
Tall Bridges (324)
Virginia (1,217)

Update Log 

  • December 1, 2019: New photo from Geoff Hubbs
  • February 1, 2017: New photos from Royce and Bobette Haley
  • September 9, 2013: Updated by Michael Miller: Added "Other Location"
  • March 17, 2013: New photo from Paul Woodring
  • September 17, 2011: Updated by Luke Harden: edited name
  • September 12, 2011: Added by Luke Harden

Sources 

  • Luke
  • Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
  • Michael Miller - michael_a_miller [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Royce and Bobette Haley - roycehaley111 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Geoff Hubbs
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Comments 

NS - James River Trestle
Posted September 25, 2020, by Garland R. Harper (grharper [at] aol [dot] com)

06JUL2010. Amtrak Regional crosses the James River trestle in the distance. The piers of Southern Ry's old main line bridge, known as the Orange Bridge, stand in the foreground. It was abandoned in the 1930s.

NS - James River Trestle
Posted December 1, 2019, by George A Oakley (Georgeoakley49 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

I looked on the satellite map by Riverside Park on the James River and zoomed in on Treasure Island and saw something very interesting along the shore in the water near the park.Looked to me to be a truss bridge but I could be wrong.Could be a boat but i'm not sure.Maybe somebody might know what it is.

James River Trestle
Posted November 25, 2011, by G. R. Harper (GRHarper [at] aol [dot] com)

History: This span and three others were built in the early 1900's as part of the Southern Railway's (now Norfolk Southern) "Lynchburg cut-off" project, which bypassed the original line of the railroad through downtown Lynchburg, with its tight curves and steep grades. Information I have gathered by perusing the microfilm archives of the local paper says that the contracts for the cut-off were let on April 2, 1906. The line opened for freight traffic on March 1, 1911, and passenger traffic followed on April 16, 1911. The span was built with double-track. The Southern single-tracked the trestle about 1962. This span has been the sight of several pedestrian (the RR calls them trespassers) fatalities over the years, the most recent being November 17, 2011.

In addition to this massive, iconic structure, (1860 ft. long and 150 ft. high) the other three trestles on the seven-mile-long cut-off are Harris Creek trestle, to the north of the James, and Blackwater Creek and Fishing Creek trestles to the south.