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The Chesterfield Railroad was located in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was a long mule-and-gravity powered line that connected the Midlothian coal mines with wharves that were located at the head of navigation on the James River just below the fall line at Manchester (on the south bank directly across from Richmond). It began operating in 1831 as Virginia's first common carrier railroad.〔(Railroad Historical Almanac 1820-1839 ), National Railway Historical Society. Retrieved August 2008〕 Although it was dismantled before the American Civil War after being supplanted by the steam-powered Richmond and Danville Railroad, several portions of the embankments for the roadbed are extant in Chesterfield County near present-day Midlothian Turnpike. ==History== Coal mining in the Midlothian area of Chesterfield County began in the 18th century. Around 1701, French Huguenot settlers to the area discovered the existence of the coalfield. In a 1709 diary entry William Byrd II, who is credited as the founder of Richmond, and had purchased of land in the area where coal was found, noted that "the coaler found the coal mine very good and sufficient to furnish several generations." It was first commercially mined in the 1730s, and was used to make cannon at Westham (near the present Huguenot Memorial Bridge) during the American Revolutionary War.〔(Coal Mining in Chesterfield County ). Retrieved July 3, 2015.〕 In 1804, the Manchester and Falling Creek Turnpike was built to ease traffic on what is now Old Buckingham Road. In 1807, became the first graveled roadway of any length in Virginia. () However, by 1824, Midlothian area coal mine owners were frustrated by the difficulty of transporting on the toll road now known as Midlothian Turnpike more than 1,000,000 bushels of coal by wagons and horse teams to waiting ships below the falls at Manchester on the banks of the James River. Seeking a better method of transportation so that their markets could be expanded, in 1825, a group of mine owners, including Nicholas Mills, Beverly Randolph and Abraham S. Wooldridge, resolved to build a tramway. The Wooldridge family hailed from East Lothian and West Lothian in Scotland, and named their mining company Mid-Lothian, the source of the modern name. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chesterfield Railroad」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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