Lambert's Point
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth River (Virginia)
The Elizabeth River is a tidal estuary forming an arm of Hampton Roads harbor at the southern end of Chesapeake Bay in southeast Virginia in the United States. It is located along the southern side of the mouth of the James River, between the cities of Portsmouth and Norfolk...
near the downtown area of the independent city
Independent city
An independent city is a city that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity. These type of cities should not be confused with city-states , which are fully sovereign cities that are not part of any other sovereign state.-Historical precursors:In the Holy Roman Empire,...
of Norfolk
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
in the South Hampton Roads
South Hampton Roads
South Hampton Roads is a region located in the extreme southeastern portion of Virginia in the United States, and is part of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA with a population about 1.7 million....
region of eastern Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, United States. It includes a large coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
exporting facility, a residential area, and a golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
course.
History
Lamberts Point was named for Thomas Lambert, who patented 100 acres (400,000 m²) there on the east side of the bay of the Elizabeth River on June 1, 1635, when the territory was still a part of Elizabeth River Shire in colonial Virginia. Lambert was an ensign in the Lower Norfolk County Militia by 1640 and was later a major in the same outfit. He was later a member of the Assembly at JamestownJamestown Settlement
Jamestown Settlement is a name used by the Commonwealth of Virginia's portion of the historical sites and museums at Jamestown. Jamestown was the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America...
for Lower Norfolk County in 1652, and by the time of his death in 1671 he was the proud bearer of the title Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lambert. Lambert's Point was located in Norfolk County
Norfolk County, Virginia
Norfolk County was a county of the South Hampton Roads in eastern Virginia in the United States that was created in 1691. After the American Civil War, for a period of about 100 years, portions of Norfolk County were lost and the territory of the county reduced as they became parts of the separate...
when that county was formed from Lower Norfolk County in 1691.
The Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad
Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad
The Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad was built between Norfolk and Petersburg, Virginia and was completed by 1858.It played a role on the American Civil War , and became part of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad in 1870. The AM&O became the Norfolk and Western in 1881...
(N&P) was built under the oversight of William Mahone
William Mahone
William Mahone was a civil engineer, teacher, soldier, railroad executive, and a member of the Virginia General Assembly and U.S. Congress. Small of stature, he was nicknamed "Little Billy"....
, young civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
from Southampton County, Virginia
Southampton County, Virginia
As of the census of 2010, there were 18,570 people, 6,279 households, and 4,502 families residing in the county. The population density was 29 people per square mile . There were 7,058 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...
who had been educated in the first graduating class of Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Military Institute
The Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...
(VMI). A rail link to the west had long been a dream of Norfolk citizens led by Dr. Francis Mallory
Francis Mallory
Francis Mallory was an American naval officer, physician, politician, and railroad executive.-Biography:...
. Despite delays, financial constraints, and the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1855, by 1858, young Mahone and his N&P workforce had bridged both the eastern and southern branches of the Elizabeth River
Elizabeth River (Virginia)
The Elizabeth River is a tidal estuary forming an arm of Hampton Roads harbor at the southern end of Chesapeake Bay in southeast Virginia in the United States. It is located along the southern side of the mouth of the James River, between the cities of Portsmouth and Norfolk...
, deployed a corduroy roadbed across the northern portion of the Great Dismal Swamp
Great Dismal Swamp
The Great Dismal Swamp is a marshy area on the Coastal Plain Region of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina in the United States. It is located in parts of southern Chesapeake and Suffolk in Virginia, as well as northern...
and completed the line west to Petersburg
Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...
. At the Cockade City, connections could be made with a north-south railroad to Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
or North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, as well as more importantly, the South Side Railroad
South Side Railroad
The Southside Railroad was formed in Virginia in 1846. Construction was begun in 1849 and completed in 1854. It connected City Point, a port on the James River with the farm country south and west of Petersburg, Virginia, to Lynchburg, Virginia, a distance of about 132 miles.The Southside Railroad...
to Lynchburg
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...
which itself connected with the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad
Virginia and Tennessee Railroad
The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad was an historic railroad in the Southern United States, much of which is incorporated into the modern Norfolk Southern Railway...
(V&T). Eventually, a rail link all the way to the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
and the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
at New Orleans was thus seen as possible.
Things were looking very favorable for both Norfolk and the new enterprise when operations were completely disrupted by the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, which was to last 5 years and do great damage to the railroads. Although the Confederacy lost the war, Mahone emerged as the so-called hero of the Battle of the Crater
Battle of the Crater
The Battle of the Crater was a battle of the American Civil War, part of the Siege of Petersburg. It took place on July 30, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General George G. Meade The...
. He promptly set about leading the efforts to rebuild the N&P and its connecting railroads, funded with money from British bondholders. By 1870, he controlled all three, renamed jointly as the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad
Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad
Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad was formed in 1870 in Virginia from 3 east-west railroads which traversed across the southern portion of the state. Organized and led by former Confederate general William Mahone , the 428-mile line linked Norfolk with Bristol, Virginia by way of Suffolk,...
(AM&O). There is ample evidence that Mahone had become aware of the potential wealth represented by untapped bituminous coal
Bituminous coal
Bituminous coal or black coal is a relatively soft coal containing a tarlike substance called bitumen. It is of higher quality than lignite coal but of poorer quality than Anthracite...
coal reserves in southern West Virginia, and had planned a fourth railroad and acquired land to capitalize upon them. However, the Financial Panic of 1873 forced the AM&O into defaulting on its bonds and delaying any thoughts of expansion. After several years of receivership, the bondholders lost confidence in Mahone and he lost control of the AM&O. It operated under receivership for a number of years and Mahone struggled to obtain adequate financing to regain control. Finally, in 1881, it was sold at auction, but Mahone was outbid. Instead, Philadelphia interests won and renamed as the Norfolk and Western Railway
Norfolk and Western Railway
The Norfolk and Western Railway , a US class I railroad, was formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It had headquarters in Roanoke, Virginia for most of its 150 year existence....
(N&W). (Mahone went on to a career in Virginia and national politics and saw to it that some of the proceeds from the sale of the state's portion of the investment in what had been "his" railroad went to build a school for blacks which ultimately became Virginia State University
Virginia State University
Virginia State University is a historically black and land-grant university located north of the Appomattox River in Chesterfield, in the Richmond area. Founded on , Virginia State was the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of higher learning for black Americans...
(VSU), near Petersburg).
The new Philadelphia owners were also keenly aware of the opportunities represented by southern West Virginia coal, where they owned much land. Soon, under the leadership of Frederick J. Kimball
Frederick J. Kimball
Frederick James Kimball was a civil engineer. He was an early president of the Norfolk and Western Railway and helped develop the Pocahontas coalfields in Virginia and West Virginia....
, they set about extending their lines west from the New River Valley
New River Valley
The New River Valley is a region in the eastern United States along the New River in the Commonwealth of Virginia . The valley comprises the counties of Montgomery , Pulaski, Floyd, Giles and the independent City of Radford...
to reach them. The first carload of coal arrived in Norfolk and Western's Eastern Branch Terminal in 1883. Many more were to follow, and soon it was apparent that a larger facility for loading the coal onto ships would be needed. Land was acquired in Norfolk County just outside the City of Norfolk on the harbor. Facilities were developed there, and the first of many coal pier
Coal pier
A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship.The typical facility for loading ships consists of a holding area and a system of conveyors for transferring the coal to dockside and loading it into the ship's cargo holds...
s to come opened at Lambert's Point in 1886.
Norfolk and Western expanded exponentially, and in the 1980s, the class 1 railroad became part of Norfolk Southern Corporation, a Fortune 500 Company
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
headquartered in Norfolk.
Norfolk Southern - Pier 6
Lamberts Point is the home of Norfolk Southern's Pier 6, the largest and fastest coalCoal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
exporting facility in the Northern Hemisphere. The facility's annual throughput capacity is rated at 48 million tons. Unlike most facilities of its kind, Lamberts Point assembles all cargo in railcars and loads direct to vessel, rather than utilizing ground storage. The system is remarkably versatile due to its ability to blend individual lots up to five ways (a five-track blend), yet in increments as small as 100 tons. The 1850' pier has three berths, two for loading and a third which acts as a layberth, as well as two shiploaders. The facility can accommodate approximately 6,200 loaded railcars, and at full capacity, its dual twin rotary dumpers (capable of dumping up to four cars simultaneously) can dump at a daily rate of 1,200 cars.
In 1886, the N&W tracks were extended directly to the new coal piers at Lamberts Point upon their completion. A residential section was also developed to house the families of the workers. Many early residents of Lambert's Point were involved in the coal industry. By 1900, Norfolk was the leading coal exporting port on the East Coast. The area including Lamberts Point was annexed by the City of Norfolk in 1911.
Today
Today, adjacent port facilities for merchandise are operated by Lamberts Point Docks, Inc., a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern.The United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
maintains the Lambert's Point Deperming Station
Lambert's Point Deperming Station
Lambert's Point Deperming Station is a United States Navy deperming facility located in the Elizabeth River just off Lambert's Point, Norfolk, Virginia, United States. It was built in the mid 1940's and services the U.S. Atlantic Fleet....
, a magnetic silencing station located in the Elizabeth River off Lambert's Point. It is used by Navy ships to reduce their magnetic signature, making them less vulnerable to certain types of mines.