Wreck At The Fat Nancy Trestle
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Orange County musician Phil Audibert wrote this song.
The Wreck at the Fat Nancy was one of the largest railroad disasters in Virginia's history. On the morning of July 12, 1888, the incident occurred when a trestle collapsed as a passenger train was atop it. Virginia Midland Railroad's Train 52-"The Piedmont Airline"-was crossing the 44-foot-high 487-foot-long trestle when it gave way, sending the train to the ground.
The incident is named for the trestle, known as the "Fat Nancy" for the woman who served as the trestle watcher. The trestle's official name was Browning Trestle, for the owners of the property on which it sits, or Two-Runs trestle for the creek that ran below. A local African-American woman who waved to train conductors and occasionally received a shovelful of coal inspired locals to rename the trestle as Fat Nancy's trestle. The Baltimore Sun reported that the woman's actual name was Emily Jackson and described a woman of "great size and uncouth appearance."
One of the deceased was Cornelius G. Cox, the civil engineer who had designed a culvert to replace the trestle, which was known to be unstable. After the collapse, the area was filled with earth and a granite culvert placed over the stream, per his design. One of the surviving passengers was former Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet, who was returning from the 25th reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg.
The culvert that replaced the trestle still stands today, where it allows Laurel Creek to flow through. Tracks no longer cross the culvert-they're now to the south. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources erected a historical marker at the site of the wreck, along Virginia State Route 20, in 2007. A keystone at the top of the arched tunnel is marked "In memory of Cornelius Cox."
from Wikipedia
Where is the location of the accident? The article mentions Virginia State Route 20, but which part?
West of Orange about half way to Montpelier Station. It's on the right as you go west. There's a historical marker with a place to pull off and read it.