Rebuild of Bridge to Today

After the war, High Bridge was repaired and used until it was replaced by the Norfolk & Western Railroad in 1914 to accommodate heavier rail equipment. Willis Willson Vail was employed as the resident engineer on the massive project. The new steel trestle, constructed in 1914, ran parallel to the old brick pillars of the old bridge which were left intact. The new bridge’s design consisted of twenty one towers. It’s estimated that several hundred men worked on the 1914 bridge project facing dangerous working conditions. Workers used the town of Farmville as a place to pick up supplies as well as spend free time.

In the early 1900s, a new railroad was built a few miles away and more traffic was rerouted to this railroad from the route going over High Bridge. The old route still existed and served as a backup route until 2005. The final regularly scheduled passenger train to cross the bridge was in 1979 and the last train to cross the bridge was in 2005.

After the closing of the railroad, Norfolk Southern Railroad (successor to the Southside Railroad) company donated 31 miles of former railway from Pamplin City east to Farmville and then southeast to Burkeville to the state in 2006. The donated land was converted into a multi-use trail, known as High Bridge Trail State Park and was opened in 2008. Work on rehabilitating the bridge to make it safer for pedestrians was completed in 2012. Standing at 160 feet tall and 2,400 feet long the bridge remains one of the longest bridges in the nation.

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References

Text:

Bill Lohmann. Media “Near Farmville, a historic railroad bridge gets a facelift.” General News Service. February 29, 2012. https://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/near-farmville-a-historic-railroad-bridge-gets-a-facelift/article_4e2579ec-fe8d-5b67-b00d-3c4490448e21.html.

“High Bridge.” Stone Sentinels. https://stonesentinels.com/less-known/high-bridge/

Flippen, Bob, and Richard McClintock. High Bridge: "The End of Our Fifteen Months' Labor". Friends of High Bridge Trail State Park, 2014.

Images:

Allison Ellis, High Bridge, 2018