Over the River

-Kathryn S. Cumming

The Belt Line Railroad bridge that spans the James River was built by one of the most renowned civil engineers in the U.S.  John Edwin Grenier of Delaware founded the J.E. Grenier Engineering Co of Baltimore, Maryland.  Grenier designed and inspected hundreds of bridges all over Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia throughout his impressive career.  He is included in the 2000 book Engineering Legends:  Great American Civil Engineers ,and won a gold medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers.  The small one-man shop in Baltimore of the early 1900’s grew to become what is today the URS Corporation which in 2000 employed over 15,000 people worldwide.

The events leading up to the construction of the Belt Line Bridge were so tragic as to be almost comical.  A wooden railroad bridge was constructed across the James River in downtown Richmond in 1838 by the Richmond -Petersburg Rail Line. It was intended to transport much-needed building materials, coal and goods for sale from Richmond to the southern parts of the state.  The bridge burned once from the sparks of a passing locomotive; was rebuilt and destroyed, again in 1865, when Confederate troops destroyed the bridge during an evacuation of the city.

In 1883, another bridge, this time made of steel, was constructed by the Atlantic Coast Line and ran from the Ninth Street warehouse south to the ACL yards across the river. At the same time, another trestle was run by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway between Fifth and Seventh Street at the foot of what was known as Gamble’s Hill.  This important line brought coal from the southwestern part of the state into Richmond.  

Problems and confusion arose from the running of so many rail lines across the James River, and many different companies vying for their use.  At one time, the Mayo Bridge was the main road crossing and rail traffic could only cross with the permission of the Mayo Bridge owners.  

Through the cooperation of the RF&P Railroad Co and the ASL Line, the artistic concrete structure seen in this cover illustration was completed in 1917.  The City of Richmond contributed to its construction and held stock in its ownership owing to the importance of this large, permanent double-track line. It cost $1,000,000 to build in 1917.  

The bridge design employs ancient Roman arch design where wedge-shaped concrete voussoirs are carefully cut to fit precisely together and abutments to strengthen the arch.  The bridge and road building accomplishments of ancient Rome were central to the rapid expansion and great success of the Roman Empire.  Arch bridges have been the favored design to carry heavy traffic for over 2000 years.


Notes:
1. “A Brief History of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad”.  
John B. Mordecai, traffic engineer,1940, (For the 106th Anniversary of the RF & P Railroad)
2. “Old Trestle on James is Yielding to Progress”, Richmond News Leader, August 18, 1970
3.  “Then-and-Now“, Richmond News Leader, December 22, 1934,  photos by G. F. Benson and Dementi Studios, Valentine History Center
4. Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers, Weingardt, Richard, publisher… 2000
5.  “John Edwin Grenier”, Quisenberry, Erika, Port Deposit Online Maryland Village, Port Deposit, MD, 2004
6.  “Making of the Modern World”, online source, The Science Museum, funded by the ISB fund of the Treasury and Cabinet Office, 2004