In addition to coal, most of the route is in active use in the 20th century for intermodal container and automobile parts and completed vehicle shipments.

The new board of directors began directing the extending of the line to Lynchburg to make a junction with the Richmond and Danville Railroad.

The board purchased four and a half thousand tonnes of iron from England to be paid with cash and delivered by ship to City Point.

They also purchased 20,000 sills, railroad ties, made of trees which resisted rot, Juniper, American chestnut and Post Oak to be delivered to the wharf.

To grade and build the whole line, they hired 16 contractors, each outfitted with a wagon, carts, teams of horses and the employ of almost 800 laborers in total.

Beyond the lines of battle until the war's last year, the principal damage it suffered was the financial weakness caused by Confederate compensation policies and currency.

Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant requested a railroad to help with supplies for the Siege of Petersburg, knowing from past experience that it would be needed.

Grant empowered Mr. C. L. McAlpine, engineer of construction and repairs, to rebuild the City Point to Petersburg Railroad, as soon as the fighting moved elsewhere.

General Grant used and extended it to move supplies and troops from the port at City Point to the area south and east of Petersburg, operating it as a U.S. Military Railroad.

Over 150 years after completion, much of the former Southside Railroad route remained in active use until 2005, when the corridor was abandoned and subsequently turned over to the Virginia DCR (Dept of Conservation and Recreation) for conversion to a rail trail linear park called High Bridge Trail State Park.