Northern Stations

he Amtrak station in Alexandria opened on September 15, 1905. The train station is directly adjacent to the King Street Metro station and faces the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.

Though not as grandiose as its nearby Washington, D.C. counterpart, this “other Union Station” has a unique style of its own. The station is a one-story brick building consisting of the original main passenger depot and baggage building separated by a 20-foot wide open gateway passage and covered by a covered terrace. The designer used the Federal Revival Style: a 20th century mixture of Neoclassical architecture borrowed from buildings constructed just after the American Revolution, fitting for its location. Both original buildings are still in use. Though many minor renovations have taken place, including the slightly more extensive renovations that occurred in 1982 and the mid-1990s, the original buildings remain essentially unchanged. The limestone and granite Veterans of Foreign Wars memorial was constructed at the station in 1942.

In the late 1840s, the city of Alexandria invested in five major railroad projects to better compete with Baltimore as a regional industrial and trade center, but ended up in a confusion of mergers and failures. In 1901, the railroads serving the region built Potomac Yard, a consolidated rail yard. In 1905, the city of Alexandria commissioned the Washington Southern Railway Company (later part of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac, now CSX) to build the Alexandria Union Station at a cost of $62,020.55. The station also served the Chesapeake & Ohio and Southern Railway trains.

Great American Stations

ichmond has been served by multiple railroads since the 1830's. The five lines fanning out from the city in 1861 were a major reason for choosing Richmond as the capital of the Confederacy. With rail consolidation after the war, the names changed but for much of the 20th. century the city still hosted six major lines. The corporate headquarters of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad, and CSX were located in the city.

Richmond Railroad Museum

he Petersburg rail station, a one-story brick building, was constructed in 1955 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and is located near the Appomattox River. CSX leases the southern portion of the station to Amtrak and the northern area is unoccupied. In the late 1980s, the depot saw a few minor renovations, including an expanded waiting room, new floors and furniture and the removal of an interior wall. The city of Petersburg’s roots are embedded in its routes. Originally a Powhattan settlement, people came over from England and settled at Fort Henry. Petersburg grew out of the expansion of Fort Henry. The Port of Petersburg drew many merchants, as it was a major hub for commercial transportation and processing of goods.

Great American Stations