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Norfolk and Sewell's Point Railroad / Norfolk and Virginia Beach Railroad
(For more Norfolk geography tidbits, click here.)
Marshall Parks, who had overseen the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal's construction in the 1850s, was one of the incorporators of the Norfolk and Sewells Point Railroad in 1872. Its purpose was to establish a rail line from Norfolk toward the Chesapeake Bay, but this never happened. In the meantime, the Seaside Hotel and Land Company was established in 1880 and was purchasing  land along the Atlantic Coast in Princess Anne County, for a resort that would become Virginia Beach. Parks was also a stockholder in this company. And on January 14, 1882, the Norfolk and Sewells Point Railroad was re-organized as the Norfolk and Virginia Beach Railroad and Improvement Company. Later, the same year, the railroad company purchased the Seaside Land Company, and now the railroad and resort development were all under Parks's supervision, as president. Initially, the 18-mile, all-Princess Anne County eastern section of the line was constructed, running from the east side of the nearly southernmost point of Broad Creek to a point near the work site of the Virginia Beach Hotel; on July 16, 1883, company officials and guests rode that section for the first time. Thus, initially, persons leaving from Norfolk would have to take a steamer to get to the Broad Creek terminal, as there was no other direct line to the southernmost part of the creek. The terminal location was near what is today Curlew Drive. By the 1884 season, the Virginia Beach Hotel (later renamed the "Princess Anne" in 1888) was completed, and the rail line was extended westward through Norfolk County to the city of Norfolk, a trestle bridge having been built over Broad Creek. (Princess Anne County and Virginia Beach, Stephen Mansfield, Donning Co., Norfolk, 1989, pp.76-77)
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