The Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway was a predecessor of the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. By 1905, when it was merged into the Pennsylvania, it owned a main line along the left (west) side of the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in North Cen ...

, to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

's South Side from West Brownsville. Branches connected to the South-West Pennsylvania Railway in Uniontown via Redstone Creek and to numerous

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

History

The company was chartered by the

Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...

as the Monongahela Valley Railroad in April 1867, with the right to construct a railroad connecting Pittsburgh to Waynesburg; it was renamed Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway in February 1870. By November 1872, when the first segment opened from 4th Street in South Pittsburgh (now South Side Pittsburgh) to

Homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

, the

had gained control. The primary purpose of this acquisition was to allow the Pennsylvania to construct a southern bypass around the congestion of Pittsburgh, via a short connection to the

Main Line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

near Turtle Creek. The line was extended to Monongahela City in 1873, and in 1874 the company began operating a

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

beyond to Brownsville. Trains began running into

downtown Pittsburgh Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose ...

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

in 1875, crossing the Monongahela on the

Panhandle Bridge The Panhandle Bridge (officially the Monongahela River Bridge) carries two rail lines of the Port Authority "T" line across the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The name comes from Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary Pittsburgh, Ci ...

. The connection near Turtle Creek was completed in August 1878, with the opening of the

Port Perry Branch The Port Perry Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from the Pittsburgh Line in North Versailles Township southwest through the Port Perry Tunnel and across the ...

and Port Perry Bridge. In 1879 the Pennsylvania began operating the PV&C under lease as its Monongahela Division.Christopher T. Baer
PRR Chronology
(Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society) The railroad was crossed by the

O'Neil and Company Incline The O'Neil and Company Incline was a nineteenth-century incline, used to transport coal from a mine mouth just west of West Elizabeth, Pennsylvania to a tipple on pool 1 of the Monongahela River. It crossed the entire width of the Borrough of Wes ...

West Elizabeth, Pennsylvania West Elizabeth is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 403 at the 2020 census. Geography West Elizabeth is located at (40.272901, -79.894918). According to the United States Census Bureau, the borou ...

. The railroad was extended further south along the Monongahela River from Monongahela City beginning in 1879 and reached West Brownsville in 1881. The Brownsville Railway Company began constructing a line from near Brownsville to Uniontown, PA. The PV&C took over the Brownsville Railway and merged it on May 11, 1880 and finished the construction of its line by 1882. The Brownsville branch was built in 1883 and connected the PV&C's acquired Brownsville Railway to its namesake town of Brownsville, PA. The Pittsburgh and Whitehall Rail Road Company constructed a line in South Pittsburgh, PA, in 1886. The line ran from S 3rd Street to a connection with the PV&C near S 30th Street Yard. The line was operated by the PV&C starting in November, 1886, and merged May 14, 1888. The McKeesport and Bessemer Rail Road Company built a line from the PV&C at Cochran to

McKeesport McKeesport is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated at the confluence of the Monongahela River, Monongahela and Youghiogheny River, Youghiogheny rivers and within the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population ...

, PA, in 1890-1891. The line was first operated by the PV&C in December 1891, then merged into the PV&C November 1, 1894. The Monongahela River and Streets Run Rail Road Company acquired what was called the Streets Run branch by the PV&C from Richard Coulter, on January 29, 1892. The PV&C acquired the MR&SR later that year and extended the branch in 1902. The MR&SR was merged into the PV&C November 1, 1894. The Peters Creek branch, near Peters Creek, PA, was built in 1893-1894. It was extended in 1895, 1901, 1902, and yet again in 1903. The Keister branch, near

Waltersburg ''Waltersburg'' is a heavyweight Pullman sleeping car named for a city in Western Pennsylvania. The unit was built by the Pullman Company in 1924 as 12-section 1-drawing room heavyweight sleeper (colloquially a “12-1”). The car featured ope ...

, PA, was built in 1899-1900. The Monongahela and Washington Railroad Company built a railroad from Monongahela City to Ellsworth, PA in 1899-1900 and a branch to Cokeburg, PA in 1902. The PV&C merged the line July 1, 1904. On April 1, 1905, the PV&C was merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad. Currently (as of 2015), the main line of the PV&C is owned by

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

and operates as its

Mon Line The Mon Line is an 85-mile long Norfolk Southern rail line which runs along the Monongahela River for most of its route. History The predecessor of this line is the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway. The northern portion (Pittsburgh to ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittsburgh Virginia Charleston Railway History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Transportation in Washington County, Pennsylvania Transportation in Fayette County, Pennsylvania Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Transportation in Pittsburgh Predecessors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Railway companies established in 1870 Railway companies disestablished in 1905