Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad
Published on 19. October 2015
149 pages
978-1-62585-630-2 (ISBN)
Description
In 1849, Virginia began a bold railroad expansion toward the Ohio River and its lucrative trade connections. The project's plan covered 423 miles and called for piercing two mountain chains with three railroads. The Blue Ridge Railroad was the shortest of these but crossed the most mountainous terrain. At times, hired slaves, who prepared the tracks, and Irish immigrants, who blasted the tunnels, faced challenges that seemed almost insurmountable. Many were killed by explosions and falling rock. Those deaths often resulted in labor strikes. The unrest slowed progress and haunted chief engineer Claudius Crozet for seven years. In this first full-length history of the Blue Ridge Railroad, award-winning author Mary E. Lyons uses a wealth of historical documents to describe construction on what Crozet called "dangerous ground."
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Mary E. Lyons
The Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad
Book
10/2015
Arcadia Publishing (SC)
€21.00
No shipping information available
Person
Mary E. Lyons, a former teacher and librarian, became a full-time writer in 1993. She is the author of nineteen books for young readers published by Scribner, Atheneum, Henry Holt, Houghton Mifflin and Oxford University Press. Born and raised in the American South, she holds dual Irish-U.S. citizenship. She and her husband, Paul, are members of the Blue Ridge Tunnel Foundation and live in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Content
- Front Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- A Note on Sources
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1. Birth of a Railroad
- 2. Slave Labor
- 3. Irish Labor
- 4. Contractors and Road Hands
- 5. Crozet's Crowning Effort
- 6. An Unsettled Month
- 7. A Great Amount of Labor
- 8. A Very Trying Time
- 9. A Fearful Velocity
- 10. Appalling Difficulties
- 11. Peaks and Hollows
- 12. Westward Ho!
- Appendices
- Watchman at the Blue Ridge Tunnel
- "Births of Negroes"
- Tables
- Blue Ridge Railroad Pay Rates
- Laborers Who Bored through the Blue Ridge Tunnel
- Slave Labor on the Railroad, 1850-1861
- Violent Deaths at the Blue Ridge Tunnel
- Notes
- Bibliography
- About the Author
