Battles of Manassas • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments • Facts • The Armies
The Unfinished Railroad wayside marker is along the Unfinished Railroad on the west side of Featherbed Road, reached from Stop 6 on the Manassas Battlefield Driving Tour.
From the wayside marker:
Unfinished Railroad
During the 1850s, two local railroads – the Orange & Alexandria and the Manassas Gap – met at Manassas Junction. In order to reach commercial markets near Washington, the Manassas Gap Railroad signed an agreement with its rival to use its tracks from the junction to the port of Alexandria. The annual cost of track rental cut into profits, however, and officials sought an alternate route.
The Manassas Gap decided to lay its own track from Gainesville to Alexandria. Work on the “Independent Line” commenced in 1854 as engineers surveyed the proposed route. Local slaves and Irish immigrants provided much of the labor – felling trees, leveling the roadbed, and quarrying stone for bridge abutments. By the time grading operations neared completion in 1858, the company halted the project for lack of funds. No track was ever laid. The abandoned railbed became a ready-made defensive position for Confederate troops at Second Manassas.
From the caption to the map:
Map depicting the projected route of the Manassas Gap Railroad and its extensions. The rival O&A Railroad is not shown.
