Transportation

Scottsville : A Transportation Hub

The village’s subsequent development as a transshipping point on the James River resulted in its incorporation as the Town of Scottsville in 1818. Trade and the town’s importance increased when Albemarle County named flour and tobacco inspectors to serve at Scottsville, and several Shenandoah Valley counties shipped their grain to Scottsville via the Staunton and James River Turnpike. By 1835, Scottsville had a population of 600 and trade was so heavy that demand arose for building ground outside the town limits for both warehouses and residences.

Changing transportation patterns shaped Scottsville’s evolution. Beginning in 1745, the natural ford across the James River made this site attractive for the first county seat of Albemarle County. Early settlers built a ferry here to connect the village to portions of the county to the south. Bateau traffic to Richmond flourished as a means to transport produce to market and finished goods to local stores.

When the James River and Kanawha Canal opened in 1840 between Richmond and Lynchburg, the era of river navigation in Scottsville ended. Freight could be shipped on the canal more cheaply than by wagon. And the canal furnished an easy, safe, and unobstructed line of communication from east and west as it remained in operation both during floods and in times of low water. Trade in Scottsville grew, and the town’s population rose to about 1000 in 1841.

Although the canal remained in operation until 1881, the poorly-kept roads leading to Scottsville hampered wagon traffic that carried freight for the canal. Trade to Scottsville began to decline in the late 1840’s, and by 1850, the population of Scottsville slipped to 666.

Just after 1850, the Virginia Central Railroad was constructed to Charlottesville, and shippers from the Shenandoah Valley began using that railroad to avoid the more difficult wagon journey overland on the Staunton and James River Turnpike to Scottsville. They preferred instead the shorter and better turnpike to Charlottesville and its railroad transportation east.

Besides meeting much competition from the railroads, the canal also suffered major damage during the Civil War and from two major floods in the 1870’s. As it teetered on the brink of financial failure, the James River and Kanawha Company deeded the canal to the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad in 1880, which began building their track on the old canal towpath.

The railroad section through Scottsville was completed the following year along with the first telegraph line. Thus Scottsville was connected with the outside world by modern facilities of transportation and communications.

But the railroad did little to improve commerce in Scottsville as the town recovered from the Civil War. Scottsville was given no special railroad function to fill, such as a division point, and was relegated to the role of a small station of the James River Division.

By 1888, there was a marked decline in freight and passengers arriving in Scottsville, but a marked increase in passengers leaving town. The census of 1890 gives Scottsville’s population as only 362, a decline of 21% from 1880.

Scottsville bridge over James River, 1907 Highway transportation received a boost in 1907 with the construction of the Scottsville Bridge over the James River. Continued highway improvements and the affordability of automobiles facilitated trade and also made Scottsville’s population highly mobile. Following countrywide trends as rural America moved to the city, Scottsville’s population fell to 283 in 1910.

By the end of World War I, however, two State highways intersected in Scottsville, and Scottsville once again served as a market, shipping, and distributing center. The town’s population in 1920 exceeded 330, and Scottsville had twenty stores, two large flour mills, an ice plant, a theater, three garages, a braid factory, two large oil companies, two hotels, two lumber plants, two restaurants, one boarding house, two drugstores, three doctors, one dentist, two schools, two dairies, one hospital, one shoe shop, and two blacksmith shops.

To learn more about everything from the geology at Scottsville that helped shape the natural horseshoe bend of the James River, resulting in our town becoming a transshipping point, to the extensive transportation-related photos and articles of Scottsville from the early 1900’s, follow the links below.