Home > Context > History > 1881 - 1899 > Transportation

Expansion of Transportation Systems (1.5.1)

The completion of the Elizabeth City and Norfolk Railroad in 1881 foretold a period of prosperity unlike any Elizabeth City had ever seen. At the festive grand opening on May 26, Richard B. Creecy, the editor of The Economist, declared that this day was "the dawn of a new era in our history, a new departure in our business prosperity, a new development in our industrial and social progress--We enter to-day upon a career of prosperity that finds no parallel in our past history" (Norfolk Virginian, May 27, 1881). The railroad was completed through Hertford to Edenton by December 15, 1881, and in January 1883, much to the ire of the people of Elizabeth City, the railroad's name was changed to the Norfolk Southern Railroad to more accurately reflect its regional interest. The railroad was placed in the hands of receivers in 1889, was re-organized in 1891, and later in 1891 renamed the Norfolk and Southern Railroad (Prince 1972, 7, 13).

The connection of Elizabeth City to the northern markets by the railroad resulted in an immediate boom which was manifested in the erection of industrial buildings along the waterfront and creeks, handsome commercial buildings downtown, and entirely new residential neighborhoods north, south, and west of the old city. With a population in 1880 of 2,315 people, Elizabeth City was the tenth largest city in the state; just five years later it was said to be "about 4000." By 1900 the town's population had mushroomed to 6,348, an almost threefold increase in twenty years (Cheney 1975, 1129; Clay 1975, 54).

Such was the attraction of the railroad that in 1885, just six years after editor Creecy implored that "Something must be done or we are done" (The Economist, January 7, 1879), Elizabeth City was described as:

. . . probably the most energetic, enterprising and progressive town in Northeastern North Carolina... (and) it is destined in a short time to become an important trade and social center . . . . Elizabeth City has over a hundred stores, five hotels, one of them as large and handsome as any in the State, two saw and grist mills, two planing mills, a carriage manufactory, a net and twine factory, a cotton seed oil mill, two brick yards, one to press brick, a steam cotton gin, and an oyster packing establishment, five blacksmith shops, a ship yard, three newspapers, three job printing offices, a bank, three livery stables, a theatre, a beer-bottling and soda establishment, a handsome and commodious academy, a number of private and public schools, a normal school for the colored race, a State normal school for the white race, four churches for whites and two for colored. It has an excellent harbor, and is the center of trade of a large section of country. (Historical and Descriptive Review 1885, 219-221).

The railroad entered Elizabeth City from the northeast, through Camden County, having crossed the Pasquotank River near the site of the old Lamb's Ferry. While the railroad's main line skirted the town on the west as it continued to Hertford, a spur ran along the town's northern boundary before turning and terminating along the river at what is now North Poindexter Street. Their purchase of the former property of D. S. Kramer and Conrow, Bush, and Lippencott along the waterfront in the present-day Northside was particularly advantageous. This location provided the most convenient link between the railroad and the various steamship companies. These steamship lines also connected the city with points on the Chowan, Roanoke, and Neuse rivers. Chief among the steamship companies operating in Elizabeth City was the Old Dominion Steamship Company, which was formed in Virginia in 1867. In 1882, less than a year after the railroad's completion, the railroad company signed a five-year contract with the Old Dominion Steamship Company to make connections with the railroad in Elizabeth City and to provide passenger and freight service between Elizabeth City and New Bern and Washington, North Carolina. This arrangement ended in 1887, with the Norfolk and Southern Railroad operating its own line of steamers and the Old Dominion Steamship Company continuing its Norfolk to New Bern-Washington route through the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal. This route change meant the loss to Elizabeth City of much of the trade of the Pamlico Sound region. During the summer, however, most vacationers going to the prospering resort at Nags Head were still dependent on taking a steamship from Elizabeth City (Prince 1972, 189, 209).

During the 1880s minor improvements were made to the Dismal Swamp Canal that enabled small vessels to pass between Elizabeth City and Norfolk. However, real relief to the waterway's lingering financial and physical problems did not come until 1892. In that year the Lake Drummond Canal and Water Company acquired the property of the Dismal Swamp Company and began a thorough reconstruction of the canal into its present form. New locks were built--the 40-by-250 foot size was more than ten times the size of the 9-by-75 foot locks in 1797. The channel was also deepened, widened, and straightened. The official re-opening was on October 14, 1899. This reconstruction significantly increased tonnage on the canal and allowed it to recapture much of the traffic lost to the Albemarle-Chesapeake Canal. The heyday of activity on the Dismal Swamp Canal would come in the new century (Brown 1967, 93, 105-109).