Loudoun Branch, Manassas Gap Railroad

The Virginia General Assembly approved plans for the Loudoun Branch (parts of which survive here) of the Manassas Gap Railroad on 8 March 1853, and construction soon began. The route extended 27 miles from just southwest of Chantilly on the main railroad's Independent Line to Purcellville, linking Alexandria with the farms of central Loudoun County. In 1856, stockholders voted to extend the railroad to Harpers Ferry to gain access to the lower Shenandoah Valley, but the financially overextended company stopped work in May 1857. Late in 1860, with an improved financial position, the company planned to continue, but the Civil War intervened and work never resumed.