Qualla: Southside (Richmond, Virginia)

Southside (Richmond, Virginia): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903., Public domain. Before 1788, you crossed the James River by bateau or by ferry. The first bridge - the Mayo Bridge across the falls at Richmond - changed that, but only at one place. For the next two centuries, the Southside of Richmond lived as its own world: its own city of Manchester, its own coal mines, its own ports, its own railroad lines, its own running rivalry with the West End across the river. 'West End - For Members Only,' the bumper stickers said. 'South of the James - By Invitation Only,' the answering ones replied. The river was a wall as much as a waterway. It took bridges, highways, beltways, and a Supreme Court case before Southside became the half of Richmond it was always going to be.

Image: LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903. | Public domain

Southside (Richmond, Virginia): Two Nations Across the Fall Line

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903., Public domain. When English settlers arrived in the early 1600s, two Native confederacies divided central Virginia at the fall line of the James. West of the falls, the Manakins - part of the Monacan Indian Nation - controlled the southern Piedmont. East of the falls, the Powhatan Confederacy, ...

Image: LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903. | Public domain

Southside (Richmond, Virginia): The Port of Manchester

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alvin Jewett Johnson, Public domain. After Benedict Arnold's Revolutionary War raids destroyed the port of Warwick in 1781, the smaller settlement of Manchester took over the role of Richmond's south-bank port. The 1788 Mayo Bridge connected it across the falls to Richmond. Manchester sat at a strategic point: water...

Image: Alvin Jewett Johnson | Public domain

Southside (Richmond, Virginia): Bridges and Suburbs

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903., Public domain. The Manchester Bridge - the free bridge the city demanded as a condition of annexation - opened in 1911. Westham Bridge followed the same year. The Nickel Bridge (originally a toll bridge, hence the nickname) opened in 1925. The Lee Bridge opened in 1933, also as a toll. Each new...

Image: LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903. | Public domain

Southside (Richmond, Virginia): Annexation and the Supreme Court

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903., Public domain. In 1970, Richmond annexed another 23 square miles of Chesterfield County, pushing its border out to the Chippenham Parkway. The annexation included historically Black neighborhoods that the city was eager to add to its tax base - and excluded white suburbs the city's leaders pref...

Image: LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903. | Public domain

Southside (Richmond, Virginia): Old Manchester, New Manchester

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903., Public domain. The Powhite Parkway Extension opened in 1988, connecting Chippenham out to the new Route 288 beltway, which by 2004 had closed a full ring around Richmond - crossing the river at the World War II Veterans Memorial Bridge. The Pocahontas Parkway, opened in 2002, gave Southside dir...

Image: LaPrade, J. E. (Joseph Edgar), 1845-1903. | Public domain