Building the VGN

The Virginian Railway could never have been constructed without the wealth of Henry Huttleston Rogers, the silent partner in the endeavor. From solid middle class beginnings, Rogers rose to become a powerful industrialist and financier through the oil refinery business.

The mastermind behind the railroad was Colonel William Nelson Page, a Virginia native. Page gained experience from many other industrial ventures that no doubt helped make the Virginian a success. He directed two coal companies in West Virginia, built an iron furnace in Virginia, and created the Deepwater and Tidewater Railways, which later merged to form the Virginian.

Plans for what became the Virginian began as a short-line railway that branched off of a Chesapeake and Ohio line. Initial attempts to expand were met with resistance from already established railroads. Though many attempts to develop the branch railway were shut down, through persistence and secretive planning, Colonel Page was able to devise a plan for the completion of what would become the Virginian Railway.

Building the Virginian Railway was a massive feat of blasting out tunnels and erecting trestle bridges of dizzying heights through mountainous terrain of West Virginia and Virginia. Hundreds of workers toiled for long days of dangerous work.  Miraculously, the first 433 miles of track was laid in just 2 years.

Stretching from the mountains of southern West Virginia to the sea at Norfolk, Virginia, the railway began hauling coal in 1909. Coal was one of West Virginia's most precious and abundant resources, and the mining and transportation of coal had been transforming West Virginia since the late 19th century.