Spring colors frame some of the garden relics

Spring colors frame some of the garden relics

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Virginian Railway milepost 141, Norfolk Division


When the Virginian railroad was being built 1904-1909, wood mileposts were located every mile with milepost zero being at the railroad's Freight Station in Norfolk, Virginia. Within a decade, concrete mileposts replaced the earlier ones. Over the life of the railroad it is believed that there were two generations of concrete posts, this being of the first generation style. Interestingly, milepost 141 was the last one passed by Buffalo Bill's eastbound Wild West train in October 1916 before it derailed. The show suffered terribly but continued to perform in eastern Virginia and North Carolina for nearly two more months before Bill Cody left the show. He died in the following January at his sister's home in Colorado. This post was found abandoned along the vacant right of way in 2008. It weighs 600 pounds and is eight feet long.

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