Crime & Safety

Remnants of Unfinished Civil War-Era Railroad Vandalized

Graffiti scribbled on the site this month.

Remnants of the, were recently vandalized. 

Several of the stones in the 15-feet-tall abutments, located in , just off Honsena Drive, now have graffiti scribbled all over them. One is completely painted silver, and even a broken tree nearby is also now coated in paint. 

The during the Civil War. It connected the Shenandoah Valley with Alexandria, using its own set of tracks until it arrived at a location called Tudor Hall (later to be renamed Manassas), where it joined with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad before continuing on to Alexandria. The strategic convenience for transporting troops of these two railroads inspired Confederate General Stonewall Jackson to station troops at Tudor Hall, which in turn inspired the Union to send its own troops, resulting in the First Battle of Manassas, or the Battle of Bull Run. 

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The remnants in Cub Run Park are part of an unfinished line which continued on through Chantilly, Fairfax and Annandale. 

Notably, Stonewall Jackson used the unfinished Manassas Gap Railroad during the Second Battle of Manassas to cover and conceal his troops.

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On April 17th, an alert reader first noticed the graffiti at the site. When a Patch contributor had visited the site on April 1st, he did not see any graffiti. 

Officials from both the Fairfax County Park Authority and Police Department said that they had not heard about the damage but would look into the incident and see what they could do to restore the bricks. Park officials said that they believe the vandalism is an isolated incident. 

Judith Pedersen, a spokesperson for the Park Authority, said that everytime there's vandalism in the parks, that "directly takes away dollars that would otherwise be used for recreational purposes [in order] to repair that damage. We would encourage people to respect the parks " and report any type of vandalism to the police. 

Mike Conway contributed to this report. 


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