Thursday, January 20, 2011

A Painful Reminder
One of my favorite quotes is from C.S. Lewis who said, "We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive."

Case in point. In the 50s we all (those of us around then anyway) marveled at the interstate highway system that stretched across this great land. The automobile was king and passenger rail became thing of the past. Rail was relegated to moving freight. Now lets jump ahead 50 years. Our highways are parking lots, in disrepair, and becoming more expensive to build and maintain. So we make our about-turn and see the advantages of rail in moving large numbers of people....again. But now the railroads, mostly in private hands, are doing quite well in the freight business in part because of government subsidies. So well that they would rather not take up valuable time and track space with passenger trains.

If I am not mistaken this is a railroad bridge, located just off of Rt. 3 in King George,built for the Central Virginia Railroad. This section of the line was not completed because the company went belly up.

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