Tidewater Railway

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The Tidewater Railway was formed in 1904 as an intrastate railroad located within Virginia in the United States by William N. Page, a civil engineer and entrepreneur and his silent partner, millionaire industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers of Standard Oil fame. It was formed with the intention of creating an outlet to Hampton Roads to export coal mined along their older West Virginia short-line, the Deepwater Railway.

In 1907, the Tidewater Railway was renamed the Virginian Railway. A short time later, acquired its sister Deepwater Railway. The railway initially played an important role in conjunction with the regional Norfolk Southern Railway (a carrier in Virginia and North Carolina) in transporting thousands of attendees to the Jamestown Exposition during 1907. It took 2 more years, but in 1909, both portions were finally completed, and began exporting coal from a new coal pier at Sewell's Point.

In 1959, the Virginian Railway was merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway, the first major U.S. railroad merger of many which were to occur in the last half of the 20th century.

See Main article Building the Virginian Railway