Virginia and Tennessee Railroad

The railroad extended westward from Lynchburg, through a gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains near the town of Big Lick (the present-day city of Roanoke); there, it turned southwestward and followed the Great Valley to Bristol, a total distance of 204 miles (328 km).

[2] Construction of the road bed began in 1850, and on February 18, 1852, the railroad's first locomotive (the "Virginia") was tested when it steamed out of Lynchburg's James River basin, climbing the nearby low mountains.

The railroad became a key supply, food and troop movement route for the Confederate States Army, particularly from the capital of Richmond to the interior at Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Union forces finally captured much of the railroad and destroyed tracks and rolling stock in late 1864, although service was periodically interrupted by a series of cavalry raids earlier in the war.

Mahone desired to consolidate the three roads and build further west, and he worked for several years lobbying to get the needed legislation through the Virginia General Assembly.

After several years of operating under receiverships, Mahone's role as a railroad builder ended in 1881 when Northern interests purchased the A, M, & O and renamed it Norfolk and Western.