Triple Crossing in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

is one of two places in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

where three

Class I railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$ ...

s cross at different levels at the same spot, the other being

Santa Fe Junction Crossing the Kansas River in Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas, the Highline Bridge is rare example of a double-tracked, double-deck railroad bridge designed for carrying railroad traffic on both levels. The bridge is owned and oper ...

in Kansas City. At the lowest (ground) level, the original

Richmond and York River Railroad The Richmond and York River Railroad Company was incorporated under an act of the Virginia General Assembly on January 31, 1853.Interstate Commerce Commission. ''Southern Ry. Co.'', Volume 37, Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Reports, Nove ...

was extended after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

to connect with the

Richmond and Danville Railroad The Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) Company was a railroad that operated independently from 1847 until 1894, first in the U.S. state of Virginia, and later on of track in nine states. Chartered on March 9, 1847, the railroad completed its ...

, later part of the Southern Railway System, currently part of

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 ...

. The line runs east to

West Point, Virginia West Point (formerly Delaware) is an incorporated town in King William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 3,306 at the 2010 census. Geography West Point is located at (37.543733, −76.805366). The York River is formed at West ...

. The middle level was the main line of the

Seaboard Air Line Railroad The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...

, now part of

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

known as the "S" line, just south of

Main Street Station Main Street station may refer to: Canada * Main Street station (Toronto), a subway station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada * Main Street–Science World station, a SkyTrain station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada United Kingdom * Main Street ...

. It is planned to become part of the

Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor The Southeast Corridor (SEC) is a proposed passenger rail transportation project in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States to extend high-speed passenger rail services from Washington, D.C. south through Richmond, Petersburg with a spur ...

. At the top level is the

Peninsula Subdivision Trestle The Peninsula Subdivision Trestle is a railroad trestle in Richmond, Virginia on the Peninsula Subdivision of CSX Transportation. Details Starting in the north, the bridge begins to rise and cross East Marshall Street and East Broad Street ( U ...

, a viaduct parallel to the north bank of the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

built by the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

in 1901 to link the former

Richmond and Allegheny Railroad The Richmond and Alleghany Railroad was built along the James River along the route of the James River and Kanawha Canal from Richmond on the Fall Line at the head of navigation to a point west of Lynchburg near Buchanan, Virginia, and combined ...

with C&O's Peninsula Subdivision to

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

and export

coal pier A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship. The typical facility for loading ships consists of a holding area and a system of conveyors for transferring the coal to dockside and loading it into t ...

s. The viaduct, now owned by CSX Transportation, provided an alternate path to the notoriously unstable

Church Hill Tunnel Church Hill Tunnel is an old Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) tunnel, built in the early 1870s, which extends approximately under the Church Hill district of Richmond, Virginia, United States. On October 2, 1925, the tunnel collapsed on a wor ...

which buried a work train with fatalities on October 2, 1925. A locomotive and ten

flat car A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...

s remain entombed with at least one rail worker, killing several others whose bodies were eventually recovered. The triple crossing has been a Richmond attraction for railfans for over 100 years, although the number of photographic angles decreased in the 1990s due to a new

flood wall A flood wall (or floodwall) is a primarily vertical artificial barrier designed to temporarily contain the waters of a river or other waterway which may rise to unusual levels during seasonal or extreme weather events. Flood walls are mainly u ...

References

External links

* {{coord, 37.532012, -77.431641, type:railwaystation, display=title Bridges in Richmond, Virginia Historic American Engineering Record in Virginia Railroad bridges in Virginia Trestle bridges in the United States Metal bridges in the United States

See also

References

External links