The Famed Appomattox Campaign's High Bridge Construction Is Completed.

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A great Virginia Railroad History/Appomattox Campaign related letter concerning the completion over the Appomattox river of the High Bridge for Richmond and Danville branch of the Southside railroad, being a, 1 1/4pp. 4to., letter written by Superintendent and agent for the New York Iron Bridge company, M. M. White (an associate of the company in 1851), Appomattox Depot, Va., Oct. 8, 1851, to his brother, reading, in part: "…we have made but slow progress with the bridge, it being not yet completed, though we expect to get it done…this week, except painting and taking down the false works…the company have erected trestles at each end of the bridge to run on while the masonry is being completed & have advertised to run the trains over the bridge & to Amelia Court House some 10 miles beyond this place…I hope to get through in time to have the bridge tested on Saturday…could I have had men proper for such work I should have been done before now, but have been obliged to take such as I could get-all white, no niggers…I am not yet informed how severe the test is to be nor how applied…there is as much curiosity to see the cars pass the bridge here as there was in Charlottesville…there will be a general turnout to witness the crossing or their predictions verified. I…will write to you again in a few days and inform you how the bridge resists the trial…M. M. White…". Construction on the Southside Railroad began in 1849 and was completed in 1854, and the High Bridge passage over the Appomattox was completed in October, 1851. The leading American railroad publication of the time, the "American Railroad Journal", announced High Bridge's successful testing in their November 1851 issue. This paper further notes that the plan for the bridge was based on Col. Stephen H. Long's iron bridge patent which had taken the grand prize at the World's Fair recently held in London. The structure stood as the crown jewel of the road's Richmond and Danville Branch, at 126 feet in height while spanning over 2,500 feet in length, until she was destroyed in April 1865 during the Appomattox campaign. The original transmittal leaf remains attached addressed, in full: "Amos C. White, Esq., Syracuse, N. Y." Near fine.

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$The Famed Appomattox Campaign\'s High Bridge Construction Is Completed.$