A new dawn for a historic railroad

Originally appeared in the Virginia Mercury

By NANCY SORRELLS FEBRUARY 23, 2024

An aerial view of the bridge over the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. (Courtesy of Friends of the Shenandoah Rail Trail)

An aerial view of the bridge over the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. (Courtesy of Friends of the Shenandoah Rail Trail)

One exciting aspect of the Shenandoah Rail Trail project is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve and protect an intact historic railway corridor that reconnects the visiting public and local people with the amazing 175-year history of the railroad and the communities it connected.

The Shenandoah Rail Trail corridor began as the Manassas Gap Railroad in the dawn of Virginia’s railroad history. State legislation in 1850 created it to serve the northern Shenandoah Valley; construction began the next year. Virginia built the railroad through tax-payer approved investments by local governments along the route. Residents, excited by the prospect of finding markets for their agricultural and industrial products, also invested.

Map of the Manassas Gap Railroad and its extensions; September, 1855. (Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division)

When the Civil War began, no one could have anticipated the outsized role this new line would play in that tragic conflict. In 1861, when Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston employed the line to move and deploy troops at Manassas, it marked the first time in history that a railroad was used in that manner. 

The railroad became an integral part of military strategy. Both sides fought for its control, pulling up rails and burning bridges and ties. In the process, the line was destroyed and rebuilt countless times until, by war’s end, it was in ruins. In 1867, the Virginia legislature assisted in rebuilding the now-merged line. With new capital the line was rebuilt along the approximate original route, and expanded south to Harrisonburg. 

Once again, the railroad prospered, taking agricultural products out of the Valley and returning with important commercial goods and supplies. A booming passenger service connected the Valley to the outside world and brought that world to the Valley to appreciate our historic and natural resources.

One hundred and seventy-five years after the Manassas Gap railroad ushered in the dawn of a new transportation age, this historic railroad now sits at the twilight of its life. Highways, automobiles and tractor trailer routes irrevocably changed transportation dynamics. The railway’s passenger service ended 75 years ago, in 1948. Freight service became economically unviable and disappeared section by section over the last three decades until the small remaining active segment ceased in 2020.

 Since then, infrastructure has crumbled. In many places ties no longer exist and trees grow through tracks. Now there is an opportunity to preserve the entire corridor and its history by bringing it back into service as an uninterrupted linear pedestrian and cyclist trail, while simultaneously protecting and preserving the physical evidence of the 175-year railroad’s story.

This will be exciting and challenging. Consider that over its life, the actual train bed and the bridges have changed in ways large and small. Virtually nothing remains from the Civil War era railroad, but even after the line was rebuilt and expanded, its tracks and rights-of-way changed with repairs, upgrades, maintenance and road changes. Occasional disasters, like when the 462-foot bridge at Narrow Passage collapsed in 1876, also transformed the old railroad. 

The Shenandoah Rail Trail corridor will weave those subtle line variations into a seamless and continuous storybook of history. Pedestrians and bicyclists will follow the trail to the sacred battlefields where the story of our nation’s tragic Civil War played out. They will visit communities along the path and learn how their lives and livelihoods were – and will continue to be, with the existence of this linear park – inextricably linked to this historic railroad.

As with any project involving federal funding, the Shenandoah Rail Trail partners understand and welcome National Historic Preservation Act (Section 106) involvement. This robust process of studying the entire corridor over its entire history includes archaeological, documentary and oral history consultation to help identify, evaluate and interpret historic resources. The step-by-step process under historic preservation oversight provides guidance on how to create a rail trail that will bring to light important resources, while avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating adverse effects.  

Through this process, a fading cultural resource built by and for the Valley people – which has served the Shenandoah Valley through times of war and peace, bounty and depression – will not be lost. Rather, it is poised to become an enduring, visible, and dynamic legacy and this historic railroad corridor will see a new dawn as the Shenandoah Rail Trail.