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Sewall's Point Piers
(For more Norfolk geography tidbits, click here.)
From the reports of the various Army Corps of Engineers’ district officers having charge of river and harbor improvements, Congressional Committee on Rivers and Harbors, 1913, pp.607-608:
"At Sewalls Point the most northern piers are long, timber piers, extending from shore to deep water, and built at the time of the Jamestown Exposition. These piers have long been abandoned and are fast going into  decay. They could not be used now without extensive repairs.
The next pier is one belonging to the Atlantic Terminal Co. [see Street Cars - Norfolk and Atlantic Terminal….], and is connected by an electric car line with the streets of Norfolk. At this pier connection is made by cars with a ferry boat extending to Newport News, Va. At the present time the ferry boat in use is for the transfer of passengers and baggage only, but the company operating this ferry has recently purchased a double-ended ferry boat and is altering this wharf and making a new terminal at Newport News, so they will be enabled to transfer carriages, wagons, automobiles, etc.
The next pier is that of the Virginian Railroad Co., which is a tall structure and is used exclusively for handling coal to vessels on both sides. The loaded freight cars are hauled by mechanical means to an elevated track, below which there are a number of adjustable chutes, through which chutes the coal is conveyed into the holds or bunkers of vessels. The cars are returned to a lower level by gravity on central tracks. At this pier all the coal is handled by mechanical means, and the appliances used are up to date and adequate for the purpose. Thirty thousand tons of coal can be handled from this pier in 24 hours...."
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