Map and profile of the Orange and Alexandria Rail Road with its Warrenton Branch and a portion of the Manasses [sic] Gap Rail Road, to show its point of connection
Printed topographic strip map with manuscript annotations to show the geologic structure along the route of the railroad. The Alexandria and the Chesapeake and Ohio canals and stage stable for horses used on the Piedmont stage route to North Carolina are also indicated. The Orange and Alexandria Railroad Company was founded in 1848 to divert hinterland products away from Baltimore and Richmond to Alexandria, Va. Construction was begun in 1850 and was completed to Culpeper in 1852 and to Gordonsville in 1854, from where the rail line connected with the Virginia Central. Warrenton, originally on a proposed earlier route, was linked by a branch line in 1853. The Manassas Gap Railroad, the first rail line to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains, was completed to Strasburg in 1854 and joined Alexandria with the upper Piedmont Valley.