Qualla: High Bridge (Appomattox River)

High Bridge (Appomattox River): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Virginia State Parks staff, CC BY 2.0. Four million bricks went into the piers. Twenty of them, each one rising more than a hundred feet from the river bottom, marching in a slow procession across the Appomattox River valley. When the High Bridge opened to trains in 1854, it was 2,400 feet long and 125 feet above the water at maximum height. Eleven years later it would become the most fought-over piece of timber in central Virginia, set on fire by men running for their lives, saved by men running after them, and rebuilt by the same Confederate engineers who had tried to destroy it.

Image: Virginia State Parks staff | CC BY 2.0

High Bridge (Appomattox River): Four Million Bricks

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Virginia State Parks staff, CC BY 2.0. The Southside Railroad built it because Farmville's citizens had paid for the privilege. The original survey for the line between Petersburg and Lynchburg, completed by 1854, called for a lower-grade route bypassing Farmville to the north. Farmville's commercial interests raised ...

Image: Virginia State Parks staff | CC BY 2.0

High Bridge (Appomattox River): April Sixth and Seventh

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Virginia State Parks staff, CC BY 2.0. On April 6, 1865, after the catastrophe at Sailor's Creek, the Confederate survivors of Anderson's and Gordon's corps raced for High Bridge. A Union raiding force of about 800 men under General Theodore Read had been sent to burn it from the east, hoping to trap Lee's army south ...

Image: Virginia State Parks staff | CC BY 2.0

High Bridge (Appomattox River): Mahone Rebuilds What He Tried to Burn

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Virginia State Parks staff, CC BY 2.0. After the war, Robert E. Lee directed the Confederate engineers who had attempted to destroy the bridge to rebuild it. The work was overseen by William "Billy" Mahone, the former Confederate general who before the war had been the Southside Railroad's president. Twenty-one new Fi...

Image: Virginia State Parks staff | CC BY 2.0

High Bridge (Appomattox River): The 1989 Accident

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Virginia State Parks staff, CC BY 2.0. By the late twentieth century the bridge had become a hazard as well as a landmark. On August 9, 1989, nine young people walking out on the bridge were surprised by a westbound train moving at 40 miles per hour. Five made it to safety on the east end. Three others reached a small...

Image: Virginia State Parks staff | CC BY 2.0

High Bridge (Appomattox River): Trail

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Virginia State Parks staff, CC BY 2.0. Cost made the decision. Maintaining the High Bridge was expensive, and Norfolk Southern had a parallel low-grade line, completed in 1916, that handled freight more efficiently. By 2005 the company had abandoned the corridor and donated 31 miles of right-of-way, including the brid...

Image: Virginia State Parks staff | CC BY 2.0