Potomac Creek Bridge

1842 establishments in VirginiaBridges completed in 1842Bridges completed in 1863Buildings and structures demolished in 1862Buildings and structures demolished in 1863 ... and 5 more

Buildings and structures in Stafford County, VirginiaRailroad bridges in VirginiaStafford County in the American Civil WarTransportation in Stafford County, VirginiaWooden bridges in Virginia

The Potomac Creek Bridge (Potomac Creek Viaduct or Potomac Run Bridge) was first built in 1842 by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad across the Potomac Creek in Stafford County, Virginia, United States. During the American Civil War, the bridge offered the only rail access between the Potomac River and the cities of Fredericksburg and Richmond, making it a vital supply line to both the Confederate and Union armies. In the spring of 1862 as Confederate forces retreated to Fredericksburg the bridge was destroyed.In 1862, the United States Military Railroad was formed under the command of General Herman Haupt. One of the first tasks was to restore the 13-mile stretch of railroad from Aquia Creek to Falmouth that was destroyed by the retreating Confederate Army. In May 1862, Herman Haupt supervised common Union infantrymen from the Army of the Rappahannock in harvesting two million feet of local lumber to construct the Potomac Creek Bridge, accomplishing this task in just nine working days. President Abraham Lincoln, on a visit on May 28, 1862, observed "That man Haupt has built a bridge four hundred feet long and one hundred feet high, across Potomac Creek, on which loaded trains are passing every hour, and upon my word, gentlemen, there is nothing in it but cornstalks and beanpoles." The Haupt bridge stood until June 1863. The Union Army built as many as four railroad bridges atop the same abutment over the remaining years of the war. Around 1899, the bridge was replaced and the south abutment and its approaching right-of-way were abandoned.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Potomac Creek Bridge (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Potomac Creek Bridge
Leeland Road,

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude	Longitude
N 38.356683333333 °	E -77.408883333333 °

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Address

Leeland Road 739
22405
Virginia, United States
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Nearby Places

Daffan, Virginia

Daffan is an unincorporated community in Stafford County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Leeland, Virginia

Leeland is an unincorporated community in Stafford County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.

WBQB

WBQB (101.5 FM, "B101.5") is a hot adult contemporary–formatted radio station in Fredericksburg, Virginia, serving Central Virginia with a primary focus of Spotsylvania County. WBQB is owned and operated by Centennial Broadcasting. The studio and offices are located on Mimosa Street in Fredericksburg.

Leeland Road station

Leeland Road station is a Virginia Railway Express station located at 275 Leeland Road in Stafford, Virginia, although VRE states that its address is in Falmouth, Virginia. The station serves the Fredericksburg Line and shares the right-of-way with Amtrak's Northeast Regional, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Palmetto, Auto Train, and Carolinian trains. However, no Amtrak trains stop here. The station is located next to the Leeland Station community, which was named after the VRE station. It is also next to Conway Elementary School.

Bel Air, Virginia

Bel Air is an unincorporated community in Stafford County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Brooke station

Brooke is a Virginia Railway Express station located at 1721 Brooke Road in Brooke near Stafford, Virginia. Free parking is available and located on a hill leading from the road. The station serves the Fredericksburg Line and shares the right-of-way with Amtrak's Northeast Regional, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Auto Train, Palmetto, and Carolinian trains; however, no Amtrak trains stop here.

Brooke, Virginia

Brooke is an unincorporated community in Stafford County, Virginia, United States. Brooke is the site of the Andrew Chapel United Methodist Church and Cemetery, and a Virginia Railway Express commuter rail station. Near the VRE station is the Stafford Civil War Park, that was established in April 2013. Along the shores of the Potomac Rivers' Aquia Creek is the Crow's Nest Natural Area Preserve and the Aquia Landing Park. The ZIP Code for Brooke is 22430.The nearby Potomac Creek, 44ST2 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Sullivan, Virginia

Sullivan is an unincorporated community in Stafford County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Grafton Village, Virginia

Grafton Village is an unincorporated community in Stafford County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Stafford Training School

Stafford Training School, also known as H.H. Poole Junior High School, H.H. Poole High School: Stafford Vocational Annex, Rowser Educational Center, and the Rowser Building, is a historic school building for African American students located at Stafford, Stafford County, Virginia. The original section was built in 1939, and enlarged in 1943, 1954, 1958, and 1960. After the 1954 addition, the facility consisted of: eight standard classrooms, a principal's office, a clinic and teacher's lounge, library, homemaking department, cafeteria kitchen, combination auditorium-gymnasium, and modern (at the time) rest rooms. Total enrollment for the 1955-1956 session was 228 and the value of the school plant was $200,000. The 1954 enlargement cost more than $100,000 and was funded with a State School Construction Funds grant and cash appropriated from the County Board of Supervisors. The 1960 enlargement added the two story cafeteria and home economics department and was built by Stafford school bus drivers. It consists of a one-story, three bay, rectangular main block, flanked by one-story brick wings in the Colonial Revival style. It is built of cinderblock clad in brick veneer and covered with a standing-seam metal roof. Also on the property are the contributing baseball field (c. 1940) and a diversionary drainage ditch (1939). The school was built by the Public Works Administration and was the only African American high school in Stafford County operating during the Civil Rights Movement. For a number of years, before the 1950 expansions, 11th and 12th grade students were transported to The Walker-Grant High School in Fredericksburg, because the other high school in the county was for whites only. The Stafford County School Board paid tuition and transportation to attend this accredited high school at Fredericksburg. Two students from the school, Doretha and Cynthia Montague, entered Stafford Elementary School, an all-white institution, on September 5, 1961; this was the beginning of the desegregation of school systems in the Fredericksburg area.The former school building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. On June 18, 2013, an historical plaque was unveiled providing a brief history of the building. It is displayed inside. Another sign, this one a state historic marker, was erected in front of the building by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in 2014.

Brookfield, Virginia

Brookfield is an unincorporated community in Stafford County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Brooke Point High School

Brooke Point High School is a public high school located about 40 miles (64 km) south of Washington D.C. in Stafford, Virginia, United States. It is one of five high schools serving Stafford County Public Schools, and enrolls students in grades nine through twelve in the eastern portion of Stafford County. The school was opened in 1993.