NORFOLK SOUTHERN IN HAMPTON ROADS: Images of America

Norfolk Southern Railway's history in southeastern Virginia began in the mid-19th century when a young civil engineer named William Mahone designed an innovative 12-mile long roadbed through the Great Dismal Swamp that is still there today. Trees were felled and laid side by side at right angles beneath the swamp's surface, forming a road, with the roadbed built on logs. Fully illus.