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Baltimore And Ohio Railroad

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) is one of the oldest railroads in the United States, with an original line from the port of Baltimore, Maryland west to the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia and Parkersburg, West Virginia. It is now part of the CSX network, and includes the oldest operational railroad bridge in the world. The B&O also coincidentally included the Leiper Railroad, the first permanent railroad in the U.S. The railroad's former shops in Baltimore, including the Mt. Clare roundhouse, now house the B&O Railroad Museum.

History

Chapter 123 of the 1826 Session Laws of Maryland, passed February 28, 1827, and the state of Virginia on March 8, 1827, chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company, with the task of building a railroad from the port of Baltimore, Maryland west to a suitable point on the Ohio River. The railroad, formally incorporated April 24, was intended to provide an alternative, faster, route for Midwestern goods to reach the East Coast than the seven-year-old, hugely successful, but slow Erie Canal across upstate New York. Construction began on July 4, 1828, and the first section, from Baltimore west to Ellicott's Mills (now known as Ellicott City), opened on May 24, 1830. Further extensions opened to Frederick (including the short Frederick Branch) December 1, 1831, Point of Rocks April 2, 1832, Sandy Hook December 1, 1834 (the connection to the Winchester and Potomac Railroad at Harpers Ferry opening in 1837), Martinsburg May 1842, Hancock June 1842, Cumberland November 5, 1842, Piedmont July 21, 1851, Fairmont June 22, 1852 and its terminus at Wheeling, West Virginia (then part of Virginia) on January 1, 1853. On July 20, 1877 there were bloody riots in Baltimore, Maryland from Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers. Nine rail workers were killed at the hands of the Maryland militia. The next day workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania staged a sympathy strike that was also met with an assault by the state militia; Pittsburgh then erupted into widespread rioting. The Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad in the early 1880s, cutting off the B&O's access to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The B&O chartered the Philadelphia Branch in Maryland and the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad in Delaware and Pennsylvania and built a parallel route, finished in 1886. The Baltimore Belt Railroad, opened in 1895, connected the main line to the Philadelphia Branch without the need for a car ferry across the Patapsco River, but the cost of its Howard Street Tunnel drove the B&O to bankruptcy in 1896. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad took control of the B&O in 1963, and incorporated it, along with the Western Maryland Railway, into the Chessie System in 1973. In 1980, the Chessie System merged with the Seaboard System Railroad to create CSX. In 1986, the B&O finally went out of existence when it formally merged with the C&O (which itself formally merged with CSX later that same year). At the height or railroading's golden age, the B&O was one of several trunk lines uniting the northeast quadrant of the United States into an industrial zone. It marked the southern border and corresponded to the New York Central's marking of the northern border. The Pennsy and the Erie railroads worked the center. The corners of this map are Baltimore in the southeast, Albany in the northeast, Chicago in the northwest, and St. Louis in the southwest.

Early engineering

When construction began on the B&O in the 1820s, railroad engineering was in its infancy. Unsure of exactly which materials would suffice, the B&O erred on the side of sturdiness and built many of its early structures of granite. Even the track bed to which iron strap rail was affixed consisted of the stone. Though the granite soon proved too unforgiving and expensive for track, most of the B&O's bridges have survived until the present, and many are still in active railroad use by CSX. Baltimore's Carrollton Viaduct, named in honor of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, is the world's oldest railroad bridge still in use. The Thomas Viaduct in Relay, Maryland was the longest bridge in the United States upon its completion in 1835, and remains in use as well.

Branches

;Washington In 1831 a law was passed in Maryland, enabling the B&O to build its Washington Branch, connecting Baltimore to the national capital of Washington, D.C. This opened in 1835, and later served as a terminus for the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad to Annapolis. ;Mount Airy ;Frederick The Frederick Branch was built as part of the original line, opening on December 1, 1831. The continuation of the main line from Frederick Junction opened April 2, 1832. ;Metropolitan

Trivia


- In the U.S. version of the board game Monopoly, the B&O is one of the four railroad properties on the board, though it did not serve Atlantic City, New Jersey, from which many of the US edition's properties are named.
- A one-time B&O warehouse at the Camden Yards rail junction in Baltimore now dominates the view over the right-field wall at the Baltimore Orioles' current home, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

See also


- Capitol Limited

External links


- [http://www.borhs.org/ B&O Railroad Historical Society]
- [http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/ B&O Railroad Photo Tours in and around Maryland]
- [http://www.borail.org/ Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum]

References


- [http://www.earlpleasants.com/search_1.asp Railroad History Database]
- [http://www.geocities.com/scott_w_dunlap/Main5.html The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Timeline]
- Mileposts from [http://web.archive.org/web/20040718192935/www.trainweb.org/csxtimetables/Contents.html CSX Transportation Timetables] Category:Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Oldest railroads in the United States

Several railroads have been called the oldest in the United States. Those, as well as other railroads chartered or opened during that time period, are listed below.

List of railroads


- 1720: A railroad is reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at Louisburg, Nova Scotia (Brown, Robert R., Canada's Earliest Railway Lines, Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin #78, October 1949).
- 1764: Between 1762 and 1764 a gravity railroad (Montresor's Farmway) was built by British military engineers at the Niagara Portage in Lewiston, New York.
- 1795: A wooden railway on Beacon Hill in Boston carried excavations down the hill to clear the land for the State House.
- 1799: Boston developers begin to reduce the height of Mount Vernon, prior to building streets and homes. Silas Whitney constructs a gravity railroad to move excavated material down the hill to fill marshy areas (Whitehill, Walter Muir, Boston - A Topographical History, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1959, p.62).
- September 1809: An experimental railroad was built next to a Philadelphia tavern by a millwright named Somerville. The track, built for Thomas Leiper, has a grade of 1-1/2 inch to the yard (about 4 percent) over its total length (60 yards) and proves satisfactory when tested with a loaded car (Dunbar, Seymour, A History of Travel in America, p. 876-7).
- 1810: The Leiper Railroad connecting Crum Creek to Ridley Creek, Pennsylvania opened in 1810. It closed in 1829 and was replaced by the Leiper Canal, but a railroad once again replaced the canal in 1852. This became the Crum Creek Branch of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad (part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) in 1887. This was the first railroad meant to be permanent, and the first to evolve into a common carrier.
- 1811: George Magers designs and builds a 1-mile wooden gravity railroad between a gunpowder mill and its powder storage bunker at Falling's Creek, Virginia (Dunbar, p.878-9, quoting Thomas McKibben of Baltimore in the American Engineer, 1886).
- 1815: New Jersey grants a charter on February 6, 1815 for a company to "erect a rail-road from the river Delaware near Trenton, to the river Raritan, at or near New Brunswick", as proposed by John Stevens (1749-1838).
- 1816: A railroad is reportedly used at Kiskiminetas Creek, Pennsylvania (Dunbar, p.880).
- 1818: An iron-smelting funace at Bear Creek, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania reportedly has a wooden railroad in operation (Dunbar, p.880). Armstrong County, Pennsylvania
- 1826: The Granite Railway was incorporated March 4, 1826 by Gridley Bryant. Construction began on April 1, 1826, and operations began on October 7, 1826. It later became a branch of the Old Colony Railroad (which became part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad). This is often called the first railroad in the U.S., and may have been the first to evolve into a common carrier without an intervening closure. It also may have been the first to be chartered.
- 1829: The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's gravity railroad in northeast Pennsylvania opened, with the Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive to run on rails in the United States, first running on August 8. The canal company, chartered in 1823, called itself "America's oldest continually operated transportation company".
- 1830: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered February 23, 1827, and construction began July 4, 1828. The first 1.5 mile section opened January 7, 1830; the line opened to Ellicott's Mills May 22, 1830, with regular passenger service beginning May 24.[http://www.geocities.com/scott_w_dunlap/BORRTIME.htm] This was the first railroad that evolved into a major system rather than being gobbled up by another, and was probably the first passenger railroad.
- 1830: The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road was chartered December 19, 1827, construction began January 9, 1830, and the first section opened December 25, 1830. This was the first railroad to use steam locomotives regularly.[http://www.railfanclub.org/archives/newsletters/January05/ThisMonth.htm] It later became part of the Southern Railway, now part of Norfolk Southern.
- 1831: The New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road opens in Delaware and Maryland, originally using horse power.
- 1831: The Chesterfield Railroad began operations by September 1831 in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
- 1831: The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad between Albany and Schenectady, New York was chartered in 1826. Construction began August 1830 and the railroad opened September 24, 1831. It later became part of the New York Central Railroad.
- 1832: The New York and Harlem Railroad was incorporated April 25, 1831, and the first section opened November 26, 1832. This was probably the first street railway in the U.S.
- 1835: The Boston and Lowell Railroad opens.
- 1836: The Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad was the first steam railroad in Florida, opening on September 5.
- 1836: The Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad opens in Quebec, Canada.

Tunnels


- 1834: The Allegheny Portage Railroad opened in March 1834, including the Staple Bend Tunnel, the first railroad tunnel in the U.S., completed in June 1833. Trains stopped running through it in 1857, and it is now part of the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site. Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site]]
- 1837: The New York and Harlem Railroad began running through the Yorkville Tunnel on October 26, 1837. It was absorbed in the 1870s by the longer and wider Park Avenue Tunnel, and is used by all Metro-North Railroad commuter trains. The old tunnel carries the two center tracks, and two new tunnels carry outer tracks.
- 1839: The Norwich and Worcester Railroad opened in 1839 or 1840 through Bundy Hill Tunnel north of Norwich, Connecticut. This is the oldest tunnel still in use in its original form in the U.S.

West of the Mississippi River


- 1841: The Red River Railroad in Louisiana was operational by 1841. [http://www.csa-railroads.com/Red%20River.htm]
- 1852: The first section of the Pacific Railroad, later part of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, opened near St. Louis, Missouri.

References

General information


- [http://cprr.org/Museum/First_US_Railroads_Gamst.html First Railroads in North America]
- [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrintro.html Library of Congress - History of Railroads and Maps]
- [http://www.earlpleasants.com/search_1.asp Railroad History Database]
- William D. Middleton, Where is America's oldest railroad tunnel?, Trains May 2002

Specific railroads


- [http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~morlok/morlokpage/transp_data.html First Permanent Railroad In The U. S. And Its Connection To The University Of Pennsylvania] (Leiper Railroad)
- [http://ci.quincy.ma.us/tcpl/legacy/railway/firstrr1.htm The First Railroad in America 1826-1926: A History of the Origin and Development of the Granite Railway at Quincy, Massachusetts] Category:Rail transport in the United States Category:Railway lines Category:Portages

Ohio River

The Ohio River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, 1,579 km (981 mi) long in the eastern United States.
United States
The Ohio River viewed from Liberty Hill in Ripley, Ohio.
Of great significance in the history of North America dating from the time of the Native Americans, the river was a primary transportation route during the westward expansion of the early U.S. It flows through or along the border of six states, and its watershed encompasses 14 states, including many of the states of the southeastern U.S. through its largest tributary, the Tennessee. During the eighteenth century it was the southern boundary of the Northwest Territory, thus serving as the border between free and slave territory.

Description

Northwest Territory Northwest Territory The river is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in downtown Pittsburgh. From Pittsburgh, it flows to the northwest through western Pennsylvania, before making an abrupt, almost 180 degree, turn to the south-southwest at the West Virginia state line where it then forms the border between West Virginia and Ohio. The river then follows a roughly southwestern and then western course between Kentucky and Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois until it joins the Mississippi from the east at Cairo, Illinois. At its mouth, the Ohio is wider than the Mississippi itself. [http://terraserver.microsoft.com/map.aspx?t=1&s=14&lon=-89.1538398279652&lat=36.9976844072984&w=750&h=500&opt=0&f=Tahoma,Verdana,Arial&fs=8&fc=ffffff99] Major tributaries of the river, indicated by the location of their mouth, include:
- Allegheny River — Pennsylvania
- Monongahela River — Pennsylvania
- Beaver River— Pennsylvania
- Little Muskingum River — Ohio
- Duck Creek — Ohio
- Muskingum River — Ohio
- Little Kanawha River — West Virginia
- Hocking River — Ohio
- Kanawha River — West Virginia
- Guyandotte River — West Virginia
- Big Sandy River — Kentucky-West Virginia border
- Scioto River — Ohio
- Little Miami River — Ohio
- Licking River — Kentucky
- Great Miami River — Ohio-Indiana border
- Kentucky River — Kentucky
- Green River — Kentucky
- Wabash River — Indiana-Illinois border
- Saline River — Illinois
- Cumberland River — Kentucky
- Tennessee River — Kentucky

Watershed

The Ohio's watershed covers 490,603 square kilometers (189,422 square miles), including the eastern-most regions of the Mississippi Basin. States drained by the Ohio include: Mississippi Basin with Ohio River and Scioto River tributary on right.]]
- Illinois (the southeast corner of the state),
- Indiana (all but the northern area of the state),
- Ohio (the southern half of the state),
- New York (a small area of the southern border along the headwaters of the Allegheny River),
- Pennsylvania (a corridor from the southwestern corner to north central border),
- Maryland (a small corridor along the Youghiogheny River on the state's western border),
- West Virginia (all but the eastern border of the state),
- Kentucky (all but a tiny part in the extreme west of the state drained directly by the Mississippi River),
- Tennessee (all but a small part in the extreme west of the state drained directly by the Mississippi River),
- Virginia (the western border of the state),
- North Carolina (the western border of the state),
- Georgia (the northwest corner of the state),
- Alabama (the northern fringe of the state), and
- Mississippi (the northeast corner of the state). See [http://earthtrends.wri.org/maps_spatial/maps_detail_static.cfm?map_select=393&theme=2] for a map and information on the Ohio's watershed.

Pre-history

The Ohio River was formed by glacial meltwater from the last stage of this ice age, the Wisconsin glaciation. During the glacial retreat, the river was temporarily dammed just southwest of Louisville, Kentucky, creating a large lake until the dam burst. The Ohio River largely supplanted the former Teays River drainage system, which was disrupted by the glaciers. Today, the river still follows a significant portion of the old Teays River course in southernmost Ohio.

History

Since it was considered by pre-Columbian inhabitants of eastern North America to be part of a single river continuing on through the lower Mississippi, it is perhaps an understatement to characterize the Ohio as a mere tributary of the Mississippi. The river is 981 miles (1579 km) long and carries the largest volume of water of any upper tributary of the Mississippi. In fact, the Ohio typically carries a much greater volume of water than the upper Mississippi. On May 19, 1749 King George II of Great Britain granted the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River. Louisville, Kentucky was founded at the only major natural navigational barrier on the river, the Falls of the Ohio. These were a series of rapids where the river flowed over hard, fossil-rich beds of limestone. The first locks on the river were built at Louisville to circumnavigate the falls. Today, this is the site of McAlpine Locks and Dam. Because the Ohio River flowed westwardly, it became the convenient means of westward movement by pioneers travelling from western Pennsylvania. After reaching the mouth of the Ohio, settlers would travel north on the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri. There, some continued on up the Missouri River, some up the Mississippi, and some further west over land routes. In these early days, in the early 19th century, pirates set up shop at Cave-in-Rock in southern Illinois, waylaid travellers on their way down the river, killed them, stole their goods, and scuttled their boats. The folktales of Mike Fink recall the keelboats used for commerce in the early days of European settlement. Because of its significant role as the southern border of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the Ohio River is historically famous as the border dividing free states and slave states. As depicted in several novels by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Toni Morrison, the Ohio River was the barrier which, by crossing by boat or 'on ice floes', slaves were freed. Today, the Ohio River generally separates Midwestern and Great Lakes states from Southern border states. Interestingly, by an accident of history, the charter for Virginia went not to the middle of the Ohio River, but to its far shore so the entire river was included. Wherever the river serves as a boundary between states—Illinois, Indiana and Ohio on the north, and Kentucky and West Virginia on the south, the river essentially belongs to the two states on the south that were divided from Virginia. Kentucky brought suit against Indiana in the early 1980s because of the building of the Marble Hill nuclear power plant in Indiana, which would have discharged its waste water into the river. The U.S. Supreme Court held that Kentucky's jurisdiction (and, implicitly, that of West Virginia) extended only to the low water mark of 1793, important because the river has been extensively dammed for navigation, so that the present river bank is north of the old low water mark. Similarly in the 1990s, Kentucky disputed Illinois' right to collect taxes on a riverboat casino docked in Metropolis, citing their control of the entire river. In the early 1980s, the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area was established at Louisville, Kentucky.

Cities along the Ohio

For a full listing, see List of cities and towns along the Ohio River. Besides Pittsburgh and Cairo, other cities along the Ohio include:
- Steubenville, Marietta, Belpre, Pomeroy, Gallipolis, Ironton, Portsmouth, Ripley and Cincinnati in Ohio
- Weirton, New Martinsville, Wheeling, Paden City, Parkersburg and Huntington in West Virginia
- Ashland, Newport, Covington, Louisville, Owensboro, Henderson and Paducah in Kentucky
- Madison, Jeffersonville, Clarksville, New Albany, Tell City, Evansville and Mount Vernon in Indiana.
- Cairo, Metropolis, Brookport, Old Shawneetown, Cave-In-Rock, Elizabethtown and Golconda in Illinois

See also


- Ohio and Erie Canal
- List of crossings of the Ohio River

External links


- [http://www.kyinbridges.com/Features.aspx The Ohio River Bridges Project] (note: site uses Flash) Ohio River Category:Rivers of Illinois Category:Rivers of Indiana Category:Rivers of Kentucky Category:Rivers of Ohio Category:Streams of Pennsylvania Category:Rivers of West Virginia simple:Ohio River

Parkersburg, West Virginia

Parkersburg is the county seat of Wood County. It is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha Rivers. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 33,099. Ohio Valley College and a campus of West Virginia University are located in Parkersburg.

History

Parkersburg was originally named Newport when it was laid out in the late 1700's. A section of the land in the town was laid out over land granted to Alexander Parker for his Revolutionary War service. The title conflicts between Parker and the city planners of Newport were settled in 1809 in favor of Alexander Parker's heirs. The town was renamed Parkersburg in 1810. It was chartered by the state of Virginia in 1820. It was rechartered as a city in 1860. The town was the terminus of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike and the Northwestern Turnpike. In 1857 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built a branch line to the town. The town was important as a transportation and medical center during the American Civil War. It then became a transportation hub in the gas and oil boom following that war. It is now the home of the Bureau of the Public Debt.

Geography

Bureau of the Public Debt Parkersburg is located at 39°15'58" North, 81°32'32" West (39.266175, -81.542139). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 31.6 km² (12.2 mi²). 30.6 km² (11.8 mi²) of it is land and 1.0 km² (0.4 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 3.19% water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 33,099 people in the city, organized into 14,467 households and 8,767 families. The population density is 1,081.2/km² (2,800.5/mi²). There are 16,100 housing units at an average density of 525.9/km² (1,362.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 96.36% White, 1.75% African American, 0.42% Native American, 0.20% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.21% from other races, and 1.00% from two or more races. 0.81% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 14,467 households out of which 25.0% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.2% are married couples living together, 13.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 39.4% are non-families. 34.0% of all households are made up of individuals and 15.1% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.23 and the average family size is 2.83. The age distribution is 21.2% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 18.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 40 years. For every 100 females there are 87.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 83.9 males. The median income for a household in the city is $26,990, and the median income for a family is $33,081. Males have a median income of $30,516 versus $20,287 for females. The per capita income for the city is $16,106. 19.8% of the population and 16.1% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 32.7% of those under the age of 18 and 10.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Famous people from Parkersburg


- Paul Dooley
- Morgan_Spurlock
- Harold Webster

See also


- List of cities and towns along the Ohio River

External links


- [http://www.parkersburg-wv.com/ Parkersburg's website] Category:Cities in West Virginia Category:Wood County, West Virginia Category:Little Kanawha River

CSX

CSX Transportation is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the CSX Corporation. It is one of the two Class I's serving most of the east coast, the other being the Norfolk Southern Railway.

History

:Main article: List of CSX Transportation predecessor railroads CSX Transportation was formed on July 1, 1986 as a renaming of the Seaboard System Railroad, which had absorbed the former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Louisville and Nashville Railroad and Seaboard Air Line Railroad, as well as several smaller subsidiaries. On August 31, 1987 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which had absorbed the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad April 30 of that year, merged into CSX. The merger had been started in 1980 with the merger of Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries to form the CSX Corporation. On June 23, 1997, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern filed a joint application with the Surface Transportation Board for authority to purchase, divide and operate the assets of the 11,000-mile Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), which had been created in 1976 by bringing together several ailing Northeastern railway systems into a government-owned corporation. On June 6, 1998, the STB approved the CSX-Norfolk Southern application and set August 22, 1998, as the effective date of its decision. CSX acquired 42% of Conrail's assets (Norfolk Southern got the remaining 58%). As a result of the transaction, CSX's rail operations, through its new subsidiary New York Central Lines, grew to include some 3,800 miles of the Conrail system (predominantly the former New York Central Railroad). CSX began operating its trains on its portion of the Conrail network on June 1, 1999. 1999 and adjacent Florida East Coast Railway bridge in the foreground.]] CSX now serves many of the eastern U.S. states (with a few routes into nearby Canadian cities). The name came about during merger talks between Chessie System, Inc. and Seaboard System Railroad, Inc., commonly called Chessie and Seaboard. The company chairmen said it was important for the new name to include neither of those names due to it being a partnership. Employees were asked for suggestions, most of which consisted of combinations of the initials. At the same time a temporary shorthand name was needed for discussions with the Interstate Commerce Commission. CSC was chosen but belonged to a trucking company in Virginia. CSM (for Chessie-Seaboard Merger) was also taken. The lawyers decided to use CSX, and the name stuck. In the public announcement, it was said that "CSX is singularly appropriate. C can stand for Chessie, S for Seaboard, and X, the multiplication symbol, means that together we are so much more."

CSX executive officers

See CSX Corporation.

Juice Train: a model for unit train competition

CSX operates the Juice Train, a famous unit train of Tropicana fresh orange juice between Bradenton, Florida, and distribution centers in Jersey City, New Jersey and Cincinnati, Ohio. in the United States. In the 21st century, CSX Juice Trains have been the focus of efficiency studies and have received awards. They are considered good examples of how modern rail transportation can compete successfully with trucking and other modes to carry perishable products.

Locomotives

CSX has a few famous locomotives around the system, the locomotive number will be in Bold text (the current paint scheme is blue and gold):
- 666 is commonly known as the devil
- 699, 5000, and 5001 are GE AC4400CW decorated with a "Diversity in Motion" logo on the side
- 8888 is a EMD SD40-2, she is famous for being a Runaway Train in Ohio
- 6000 is a GP40-2 that was the last locomotive in Chessie paint
- 6001 is a GP40-2 that had the first roadnumber B&O 1977
- 6062 is another GP40-2 that was the second locomotive that had B&O 1977
- 6063 is a EMD GP40-2, she is the former Chessie System GM50
- 9699 is a EMD GP38-2 painted MOW orange, she was Trains Magazine's "All American Diesel" for 1982 (former B&O 3802, now at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland)

See also


- List of CSX Transportation lines
- List of CSX Transportation predecessor railroads
- CSX milepost prefixes

External links


- [http://www.csx.com/ CSX official website]
- [http://CSX-Sucks.com/ CSX parody website]
- [http://csx.history.railfan.net/ CSX History]
- [http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/ CSX Photo Archives]
- [http://www.railserve.com/railnews/csx_news.html CSX News]
- [http://pages.prodigy.net/bote_rail/Contents.html CSX timetables] (partial listing)

References


- Milt Dolinger, [http://www.trains.com/content/dynamic/articles/000/000/002/997majiu.asp How CSX got its name], Trains

Roundhouse

:This article is about a railroad shop structure called a roundhouse. For other meanings, see Roundhouse (disambiguation). Roundhouse (disambiguation) Roundhouse (disambiguation) freight yards, December 1942.]] A roundhouse is a maintenance facility used by railroads. Roundhouses are the large, circular or semicircular structures that are located surrounding or adjacent to turntables. The roundhouse in a railroad yard is typically where steam locomotives were stored when they weren't in use. One of the earliest (if not the first, as some suggest) was built at Derby, in England, by the North Midland Railway In a guidebook of the time we are told "The engine-house is a polygon of sixteen sides, and 190 feet in diameter, lighted from a dome-shaped roof, of the height of 50 feet. It contains 16 lines of rails, radiating from a single turn-table in the centre: the engines, on their arrival, are taken in there, placed upon the turn-table, and wheeled into any stall that may be vacant. Each of the 16 stalls will hold two, or perhaps more, engines." Since the great dieselization era of the 1940s and 1950s, many roundhouses have been demolished, but a few still stand and remain in use on the railroads. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, in Baltimore, MD, is located in the restored roundhouse of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

References

# The North Midland Railway Guide, 1842, Nottingham: R. Allen. Republished (1973) by Turntable Enterprises, Leeds

External links


- [http://bhess.shu.ac.uk/ Barrow Hill, Derbyshire, England: includes a list of other worldwide roundhouses] Category:Rail infrastructure

B&O Railroad Museum

Opened in Baltimore on 2 July, 1953, the B&O Railroad Museum is located at the historic site of the B&O Railroad's Mt. Clare Shops. Mount Clare is considered to be the birthplace of American railroading. The museum houses collections of 19th- and 20th-century artifacts related to America's railroads. The collection includes 250 pieces of railroad rolling stock, 15,000 artifacts, 5000 cubic feet (140 m³) of archival material, four significant nineteenth-century buildings, including the historic roundhouse, and a mile of track, considered the most historic mile of railroad track in the United States.

Restoration

On the morning of February 17, 2003, a heavy snowfall collapsed the roof of the museum's Baldwin roundhouse (built in 1884). The museum suffered heavy damage not only to the roundhouse itself but also to the collection within the roundhouse. Some of the items were damaged beyond repair. The roundhouse, with a newly repaired roof, reopened to the public on November 13, 2004. Repairs are ongoing to the damaged exhibits.

See also


- List of heritage railways

External links

[http://www.borail.org/ B&O Railroad Museum Website] Category:Museums in Baltimore Category:United States railroad museums and tourist lines Category:Transportation in Baltimore Category:Transport museums

February 28

February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 306 days remaining, 307 in leap years. In a common year it is the last day of February

Events


- 364 - Valentinian I is elevated as Roman Emperor.
- 1700 - Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
- 1784 - John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
- 1827 - The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
- 1844 - A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing two United States Cabinet members and several others.
- 1849 - Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, 4 months 21 days after leaving New York Harbor.
- 1850 - The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- 1854 - The United States Republican Party is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.
- 1861 - Colorado is organized as a United States territory.
- 1870 - The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1883 - The first vaudeville theater opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1885 - The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)
- 1897 - Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch in Madagascar, was deposed by a French military force.
- 1900 - The Second Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.
- 1922 - The United Kingdom accepts the independence of Egypt.
- 1933 - Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.
- 1935 - Nylon is discovered by Wallace Carothers.
- 1939 - The word "Dord" is discovered in the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
- 1940 - Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
- 1947 - February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with large loss of civilian lives.
- 1948 - Bud Gartiser sets a new world record after clearing the 50-yard low hurdles in 6.8 seconds.
- 1952 - End of 8th Winter Olympic Games in Oslo.
- 1953 - James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; formal announcement April 25 following publication in April Nature (pub. April 2).
- 1960 - End of 10th Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley, California
- 1972 - Sino-American relations: The United States and People's Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
- 1974 - After seven years, the United States and Egypt re-establish diplomatic relations.
- 1975 - A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.
- 1983 - The final episode of M
- A
- S
- H is broadcast in the USA, becoming the most watched television episode in history, with 106–125 million viewers in the U.S. (estimate varies by source).
- 1986 - Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
- 1993 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
- 1998 - Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive againt the KLA in Kosovo.
- 2001 - An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley area of the U.S. state of Washington.
- 2002 - Ethnic conflict in India: At least 55 are killed in Ahmadabad, India when Hindus burn Muslim homes.
- 2004 - Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947

Births


- 1155 - Henry the Young King, son of Henry II of England (d. 1183)
- 1533 - Michel de Montaigne, French writer and philosopher (d. 1592)
- 1552 - Joost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker and mathematician (d. 1632)
- 1612 - John Pearson, English theologian (d. 1686)
- 1670 - Benjamin Wadsworth, American President of Harvard University (d. 1737)
- 1675 - Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (d. 1726)
- 1683 - René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French scientist (d. 1757)
- 1704 - Louis Godin, French astonomer (d. 1760)
- 1712 - Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French military commander (d. 1759)
- 1724 - George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, British field marshal (d. 1807)
- 1820 - John Tenniel, English illustrator (d. 1914)
- 1823 - Ernest Renan, French philosopher (d. 1892)
- 1827 - Blondin, French tightrope walker (d. 1897)
- 1833 - Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (d. 1913)
- 1878 - Pierre Fatou, French mathematician (d. 1929)
- 1882 - Geraldine Farrar, American soprano (d. 1967)
- 1882 - José Vasconcelos, Mexican writer and politician (d. 1959)
- 1894 - Ben Hecht, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 1964)
- 1896 - Philip Showalter Hench, Americah physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1965)
- 1900 - Wolfram Hirth, German pilot and aircraft designer (d. 1959)
- 1901 - Linus Pauling, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Peace (d. 1994)
- 1903 - Vincente Minnelli, American director (d. 1986)
- 1906 - Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)
- 1908 - Billie Bird, American actress (d. 2002)
- 1909 - Stephen Spender, English poet (d. 1995)
- 1915 - Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1987)
- 1915 - Zero Mostel, American actor (d. 1977)
- 1923 - Charles Durning, American actor
- 1926 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, Soviet defector, daughter of Joseph Stalin
- 1929 - Hayden Fry, American football coach
- 1929 - Frank Gehry, Canadian-American architect
- 1930 - Leon Neil Cooper, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1930 - Gavin MacLeod, American actor
- 1931 - Dean Smith, American basketball coach
- 1933 - Rein Taagepera, Estonian politician
- 1939 - Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1939 - Tommy Tune, American dancer, choreographer, and actor
- 1940 - Mario Andretti, American race car driver
- 1940 - Joe South, American singer and songwriter
- 1942 - Frank Bonner, American actor and director
- 1942 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (d. 1969)
- 1942 - Joe South, American musician
- 1942 - Dino Zoff, Italian footballer
- 1944 - Kelly Bishop, American actress
- 1944 - Sepp Maier, German footballer
- 1944 - Win Aung, Burmese politician
- 1945 - Bubba Smith, American football player and actor
- 1946 - Robin Cook, British politician (d. 2005)
- 1946 - Syreeta Wright, American singer (d. 2004)
- 1947 - Stephanie Beacham, British actress
- 1948 - Steven Chu, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1948 - Mike Figgis, English director, writer, and composer
- 1948 - Bernadette Peters, American actress and singer
- 1948 - Mercedes Ruehl, American actress
- 1952 - William Finn, American composer and lyricist
- 1955 - Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian and actor
- 1957 - John Turturro, American actor
- 1960 - Dorothy Stratten, Canadian actress and model (d. 1980)
- 1961 - Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian actress
- 1961 - Mark Latham, Australian politician
- 1969 - Robert Sean Leonard, American actor
- 1970 - Noureddine Morceli, Algerian athlete
- 1970 - Lemony Snicket, American writer
- 1971 - Tristan Louis, American writer
- 1973 - Eric Lindros, Canadian hockey player
- 1974 - Lee Carsley, Irish footballer
- 1979 - Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper
- 1980 - Pascal Bosschaart, Dutch footballer
- 1985 - Jelena Jankovic, Serbian tennis player
- 1986 - Daniel Broderick, Australian musician
- 2001 - Smarty Jones, American racehorse

Deaths


- 1261 - Henry III, Duke of Brabant
- 1326 - Duke Leopold I of Austria (b. 1290)
- 1453 - Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (b. 1400)
- 1485 - Niclas, Graf von Abensberg, German soldier (b. 1441)
- 1510 - Juan de la Cosa, Spanish cartographer and explorer
- 1572 - Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian (b. 1505)
- 1621 - Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1590)
- 1648 - King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway, (b. 1577)
- 1746 - Hermann von der Hardt, German historian (b. 1660)
- 1786 - John Gwynn, English architect and engineer (b. 1713)
- 1788 - Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman (b. 1725)
- 1916 - Henry James, American writer (b. 1843)
- 1936 - Charles Nicolle, French bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1866)
- 1941 - King Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)
- 1942 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (b. 1889)
- 1959 - Maxwell Anderson, American playwright and film writer (b. 1888)
- 1967 - Henry Luce, American publisher (b. 1898)
- 1974 - Bobby Bloom, American singer/songwriter (b. 1946)
- 1977 - Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1978 - Philip Ahn, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1978 - Zara Cully, American actress (b. 1892)
- 1985 - David Byron, British singer (Uriah Heep) (b. 1947)
- 1985 - Ray Ellington, British singer (b. 1916)
- 1986 - Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1927)
- 1991 - Reinhard Bendix, German sociologist (b. 1916)
- 1993 - Ruby Keeler, Canadian actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1910)
- 1998 - Dermot Morgan, Irish actor and comedian (b. 1952)
- 1998 - Arkady Shevchenko, Soviet diplomat (b. 1930)
- 2002 - Mary Stuart, American actress (b. 1926)
- 2002 - Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (b. 1920)
- 2003 - Chris Brasher, British athlete (b. 1928)
- 2003 - Fidel Sánchez Hernández, President of El Salvador (heart attack) (b. 1917)
- 2003 - Roger Michael Needham, British cryptographer (b. 1935)
- 2004 - Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian, writer, and Librarian of Congress (b. 1914)
- 2004 - Andres Nuiamäe, Estonian soldier (killed in battle) (b. 1982)

Holidays and observances


- Bahá'í Faith - Day 3 of Ayyám-i-Há (Intercalary Days) - days in the Bahá'í calendar devoted to service and gift giving.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/28 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050228.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 27 - February 29 - March 1 - January 28 - March 28 -- listing of all days ko:2월 28일 ms:28 Februari ja:2月28日 simple:February 28 th:28 กุมภาพันธ์

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is one of the original thirteen states of the United States that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, and is part of the South. It is one of four states that use the name commonwealth. Virginia was the first part of the Americas to be colonized permanently by England. Virginia's U.S. postal abbreviation is VA, and its Associated Press abbreviation is Va. Kentucky and West Virginia were part of Virginia at the time of the founding of the United States; but the former was admitted to the Union as a separate state in 1792, while the latter broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. Virginia is known as the "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents, more than any other state. Five of them were re-elected to a second term: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and Woodrow Wilson. William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Zachary Taylor round out the list of American Presidents from the Commonwealth of Virginia. (Harrison and Taylor died while in office.)

History

Native Americans

At the time of the English colonization of Virginia, among Native American people living in what now is Virginia were the Cherokee, Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Meherrin, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottaway, Pamunkey, Pohick, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Saponi, and Tuscarora. The natives are often divided into three groups. The largest group are known as the Algonquian who numbered over 10,000. The other groups are the Iroquoian (numbering 2,500) and the Siouan. [http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/vahistory/tribes.html]

Virginia Colony: 1607–1776

At the end of the 16th century, when Great Britain began to colonize North America, Virginia was the name that Queen Elizabeth I of England (who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married) gave to the whole area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America, eventually applying to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine. The London Virginia Company became incorporated as a joint stock company by a proprietary charter drawn up on April 10, 1606. It swiftly financed the first permanent English settlement in the New World, which was at Jamestown, named in honor of King James I, in the Virginia Colony, in 1607, which settlement was founded by Captian Christopher Newport and Captain John Smith. Its Second Charter was officially ratified on May 23, 1609. Jamestown was the original capital of the Virginia Colony, and remained so until the State House burned (not the first time) in 1698. After the fire, the colonial capital was moved to nearby Middle Plantation, which was renamed Williamsburg in honor of William of Orange, King William III. Virginia was given its nickname, "The Old Dominion", by King Charles II of England at the time of the Restoration, because it had remained loyal to the crown during the English Civil War.

A new state

In 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of then-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who was afraid that Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a British attack. In the autumn of 1781, American troops trapped the British on the Yorktown peninsula in the famous Battle of Yorktown. This prompted a British surrender on October 19, 1781, formally ending the war and securing the former colonies' independence, even though sporadic fighting continued for two years. Patrick Henry served as the first Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779, and again from 1784 to 1786. On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document that influenced the Bill of Rights added later to the United States Constitution. On June 29, 1776, the convention adopted a constitution that established Virginia as a commonwealth independent of the British Empire. In 1790 both Virginia and Maryland ceded territory to form the new District of Columbia, but in an Act of the U.S. Congress dated July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac that had been ceded by Virginia was retroceded to Virginia effective 1847, and is now Arlington County and part of the City of Alexandria.

American Civil War

Virginia is one of the states that seceded from the Union to become the Confederacy during the Civil War. When it did, some counties were separated as Kanawha (later renamed West Virginia), an act which was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1870. More battles were fought on Virginia soil than anywhere else in America during the Civil War. Virginia formally rejoined the Union on January 26, 1870, after a period of post-war military rule.

20th century

When Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia on January 13, 1990, he became the first African-American to serve as Governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction.

Law and government

The capital is Richmond: the current Governor is Mark Warner, a Democrat. Tim Kaine, also a Democrat, is the governor-elect. Previous capitals included Jamestown (1609–1699) and Williamsburg (1699–1780). The Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond was designed by Thomas Jefferson and the cornerstone was laid by Governor Patrick Henry in 1785. In colonial Virginia, the lower house of the legislature was called the House of Burgesses. Together with the Governor's Council, the House of Burgesses made up the General Assembly. The Governor's Council was composed of 12 men appointed by the British Monarch to advise the Governor. The Council also served as the General Court of the colony, a colonial equivalent of a Supreme Court. Members of the House of Burgesses were chosen by all those who could vote in the colony. Each county chose two people or burgesses to represent it, while the College of William and Mary and the cities of Norfolk, Williamsburg, and Jamestown each chose one burgess. The Burgesses met to make laws for the colony and set the direction for its future growth; the Council would then review the laws and either approve or disapprove them. The approval of the Burgesses, the Council, and the Governor was needed to pass a law. The idea of electing burgesses was important and new. It gave Virginians a chance to control their own government for the first time. At first the burgesses were elected by all free men in the colony. Women, indentured servants, and Native Americans could not vote. Later the rules for voting changed, making it necessary for men to own at least fifty acres (200,000 m²) of land in order to vote. Founded in 1619, the Virginia General Assembly is still in existence as the oldest legislature in the Western Hemisphere. Today, the General Assembly is made up of the Senate and the House of Delegates. Like many other states, by the 1850s Virginia featured a state legislature, several executive officers, and an independent judiciary. By the time of the Constitution of 1901, which lasted longer than any other state constitution, the General Assembly continued as the legislature, the Supreme Court of Appeals acted as the judiciary, and the eight elected executive officers were the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the Commonwealth, State Treasurer, Auditor of Public Accounts, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration. The Constitution of 1901 was amended many times, notably in the 1930s and 1950s, before it was abandoned in favour of more modern government, with fewer elected officials, reformed local governments and a more streamlined judiciary. Virginia currently functions under the 1970 Constitution of Virginia. It is the state's ninth constitution. Under the Constitution, the State Government is composed of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch or state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly, a bicameral body whose 140 members make all state laws. Members of the Virginia House of Delegates serve two-year terms, while members of the Virginia Senate serve four-year terms. The General Assembly also selects the state's Auditor of Public Accounts. The statutory law enacted by the General Assembly is codified in the Code of Virginia. The executive branch comprises the Governor of Virginia, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and the Attorney General of Virginia. All three officers are separately elected to four-year terms in years following Presidential elections (1997, 2001, 2005, etc) and take office in January of the following year. The Governor serves as chief executive officer of the Commonwealth and as Commander-in-Chief of the State Militia. State law forbids any Governor from serving consecutive terms. The Lieutenant Governor serves as President of the Senate of Virginia and is first in the line of succession to the Governor. The Attorney General is chief legal advisor to the Governor and the General Assembly, chief lawyer of the state and the head of the Department of Law. The Attorney General is second in the line of succession to the Governor. Whenever there is a vacancy in all three executive offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, then the Speaker of the House of the Virginia House of Delegates becomes Governor. The Office of the Governor's Secretaries helps manage the Governor's Cabinet, comprised of the following individuals, all appointed by the Governor:
- Governor's Chief of Staff
- Secretary of Administration
- Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry
- Secretary of Commerce and Trade
- Secretary of the Commonwealth
- Secretary of Education
- Secretary of Finance
- Secretary of Health and Human Resources
- Secretary of Natural Resources
- Secretary of Public Safety
- Secretary of Technology
- Secretary of Transportation
- Assistant to the Governor for Commonwealth Preparedness The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia Court of Appeals, the General District Courts and the Circuit Courts. The Virginia Supreme Court, composed of the chief justice and six other judges is the highest court in the Commonwealth (although, as with all the states, the U.S. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over decisions by the Virginia Supreme Court involving substantial questions of U.S. Constitution law or constitutional rights). The Chief Justice and the Virginia Supreme Court also serve as the administrative body for the entire Virginia court system. The 95 counties and the 39 independent cities all have their own governments, usually a county board of supervisors or city council which choose a city manager or county administrator to serve as a professional, non-political chief administrator under the council-manager form of government. There are exceptions, notably Richmond, Virginia, which has a popularly-elected Mayor who serves as chief executive separate from the city council.

Political control

After William Mahone and the Readjuster Party lost control of Virginia politics around 1883, the Democratic Party held a strong majority position of state and federal offices for over 85 years. In 1970, Republican A. Linwood Holton Jr. became the first Republican governor in the 20th century. In the years thereafter, Republicans made substantial gains, and for a time, controlled both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as well as the Governorship from 1994 until 2002.
- Republicans hold both seats in the U.S. Senate, 8 of 11 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, hold a majority in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate, and a Republican is Virginia's Lieutenant Governor-Elect. A republican is also temporarily serving as attorney general having been appointed to fill the seat left by Jerry Kilgore. However, the recent election for attorney general to fill the open seat has not been decided and a recount will occur to determine the election.
- Democrats control the remaining 3 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Governor and Governor-Elect are both Democrats. The Democrats have steadily been gaining seats in the Virginia House of Delegates and may soon take control, however the State Senate will likely remain under Republican Leadership. Incumbent Virginia governors cannot run for re-election under the state constitution and In the November 2005 election, the race to succeed Democratic Governor Mark Warner, Democrat Timothy M. Kaine beat Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (Scott County), and State Senator Russ Potts (Winchester) (longtime Republican) running as an independent. Kaine will become governor of the state at his inauguration on January 14, 2006.

Geography

2006 2006 Virginia is bordered by West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia (across the Potomac River) to the north, by Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, by North Carolina and Tennessee to the south, and by Kentucky and West Virginia to the west. The Chesapeake Bay divides the state, with the eastern portion (called 'the Eastern Shore of Virginia'), a part of the Delmarva Peninsula, completely separate (an exclave) from the rest of the state. Geographically, Virginia is divided into the following 5 regions:
- Tidewater - Stretching from the Atlantic coast to the fall line
- Piedmont - East of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Tidewater Region
- Blue Ridge Mountains - East of the Appalachian Mountains to the Blue Ridge Mountain Region
- Valley and Ridge - Appalachian Mountains and Shenandoah Valley Region
- Appalachian Plateau - West of the Appalachian Mountains Virginia's long east-west axis means that metropolitan northern Virginia lies much closer to New York and New England than to the rural western panhandle of its own state. Conversely, Lee County, at the tip of the panhandle, is closer to 8 state capitals than it is to Richmond.

Demographics

As of 2004, Virginia's population was estimated to be 7,459,827. The state had a foreign-born population of 679,500 (9.1% of the state population), of which an estimated 100,000 were illegal aliens (15% of the foreign-born). The state's population increased by 1.3 million between 1990 and 2004, a growth of 21% Race and Ancestry
The racial makeup of the state:
- 70.2% White non-Hispanic
- 19.6% Black
- 4.7% Hispanic
- 3.7% Asian
- 0.3% Native American
- 2% Mixed race The five largest reported ancestry groups in Virginia are: African American (19.6%), German (11.7%), American (11.2%), English (11.1%), Irish (9.8%). Historically, as the largest and wealthiest colony and state and the birthplace of Southern and American culture, a large proportion (about half) of Virginia's population was made up of black slaves who worked the state's tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantations. The twentieth century Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North reduced Virginia's black population to about 20 percent. Today Blacks are concentrated in the eastern and southern tidewater and piedmont regions where plantation agriculture was most dominant. The western mountains are populated primarily by people of British and American ancestry. People of German descent are present in sizable numbers in the northwestern mountains and Shenandoah Valley. And due to recent immigration, there is a rapidly growing population of Hispanics (particularly Central Americans) and Asians in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. 6.5% of Virginia's population were reported as under 5, 24.6% under 18, and 11.2% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51% of the population.

Religion

The religious affiliations of the people of Virginia are:
- Christian – 84%
  - Protestant – 69%
    - Baptist – 32%
    -