Tour - High Bridge Walking Tour

High Bridge Walking Tour

Farmville, Virginia 23901, United States

Created By: Public History

Tour Information

Begining with an overview of Farmville and the warehouses over the last two hundred years and ending with the creation of High Bridge State Park, we will help guide you through Farmville's exciting military, economic, agricultural, and transportation history.

From Farmville and the warehouses, we will take you through the history of the railroad including the construction, the purpose, and the significance during the Civil War. Next, we will go into the Civil War campaign history, slavery in the military, General Smith's death, Camp Paradise, and the retreat and burning of the bridge. Finally, we will move from the dormant period to the rebuild, decommissioning, and creation as a State Park.

Tour Map

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What You'll See on the Tour

Randolph Plantation, Scandal at Bizarre, and Israel Hill

Randolph Planation and Scandal at Bizarre At the corner of E. Second and N. Main Street, once stood the planation home for the Randolphs, a notorious family that rose and fell with the antebellum tobacco economy and founded the town of Biza... Read more

Tobacco Warehouses and Fires

The Randolph Warehouse and Farmville Warehouse The Randolph Warehouse (Old Warehouse), located on the Appomattox River at Mill and First Street, is now occupied by Charley’s Waterfront Café and part of Green Front Furniture Company. In J... Read more

Farmville Since 1940s

Since 1940s By 1955, only two companies remained in Farmville – Dunnington Tobacco and Putney Tobacco Company – one of the warehouses being bought and converted into a factory by the Lynchburg baised Craddock-Terry Shoe Corporation in 1... Read more

History of the Railroad

The charter to build the Southside Railroad, which ran from Lynchburg to Farmville, was signed by the state of Virginia in 1846 and the first tracks were laid in 1849. The initial plan was to make the railroad run through a series of county... Read more

Building Southside Railroad

For four years, the bridge acted solely as a commercial route, transporting goods such as tobacco food, and passengers, to and from Lynchburg, Richmond and the areas in between. This went on until 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War. The... Read more

War on the Bridge

Campaign History, Camp Paradise, the Life of a Soldier The High Bridge Trail’s significance comes from a great majority of its military history. The trail and the railroad played a noteworthy part in the Civil War and were used as a bac... Read more

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. Th... Read more