the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad combined three railroads to connect Norfolk to Bristol
Source: Library of Congress, A map showing the Atlantic Mississippi & Ohio R.R. and its connections from Norfolk to Cumberland Gap via Bristol (G.W. & C.B. Colton & Co., 1867)
In 1870, the Norfolk and Petersburg, South Side, and Virginia and Tennessee railroads were combined into the Atlantic Mississippi & Ohio Railroad. The mainline linked Bristol to the Chesapeake Bay port of Norfolk, 408 miles away.1
William Mahone negotiated the consolidation. He had built the Norfolk and Petersburg prior to becoming a Confederate generate during the Civil War. In 1865, he was president of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and also of the South Side Railroad.
The board of directors of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, influenced by the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad, rejected Mahone's proposal to join together in 1866. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was trying to acquire bankrupt lines in the south to extend its network while prices were depressed. Business leaders in Baltimore and Alexandria did not want the cotton traffic from the south diverted to Norfolk, where steamships could carry freight to northern ports.
To counter resistance, Mahone got the General Assembly to pass the Southside Consolidation Act mandating a merger. The law expired before any action was finalized, even though Mahone had managed to get elected as president of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad.
Mahone finally succeeded in implementing consolidation in 1870. Those who opposed him, for both business and personal rivalries, joked that the railroad's initials actually referred to Mahone and his wife Otelia; AM&O stood for "All Mine and Otelia's."
the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad carried freight from Bristol to a wharf at Town Point in Norfolk
Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Virginia and West Virginia (The National Atlas Containing Elaborate Topographical Maps Of The United States And The Dominion of Canada, by O. W. Gray, 1877)
An 1870 flood washed out the bridges in Lynchburg connecting to Percival's Island, as well as the Six Mile Bridge downstream of the city. The Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad had been upgrading the bridges, rebuilt after the Civil War with green timber, with Fink style wrought iron suspended trusses. New trusses were ordered and installed.2
the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad replaced the wooden trusses on its bridges at Lynchburg with iron trusses in 1870-71
Source: New York Public Library, N015-0352 Norfolk Southern Six Mile Bridge No. 58
Mahone raised working capital by selling bonds to English investors in 1871. The recession ("panic") in 1873 reduced railroad traffic, lowering revenues needed to pay for operations and maintenance. The economic conditions also made it difficult to raise the capital required for upgrading the trackbed and bridges, and expanding the railroad.
the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad planned to build along the New River to connect with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in Hinton, West Virginia
Source: Library of Congress, Route of the New River R.R. (Jedediah Hotchkiss, 188_)
In 1876, the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad went into bankruptcy because it could not pay the required interest on outstanding bonds. Mahone lost control of the railroad to trustees appointed by the bankruptcy court. He shifted his personal focus away from business and became the leader of the Readjuster Party. In 1881, at the peak of his political power, William Mahone was elected by the General Assembly to the US Senate.
On February 10, 1881, the trustees appointed by the bankruptcy court sold the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad to Clarence Clark and his brothers. They had organized group of investors in Philadelphia and were building the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, stretching south from Hagerstown to a future connection with the AM&O near Salem. Acquiring the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad guaranteed the cotton and other freight coming from Tennessee would move north on the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, not the rival Valley Railroad being financed by the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad.
The Clark brothers renamed the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad as the Norfolk and Western Railroad, and merged the Shenandoah Valley Railroad into it. That created a system which crossed the state east-west from Bristol to Norfolk, and north-south from the Tennessee border to the Maryland border.3
the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad became the western end of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad in 1870
Source: New York Public Library, Map of Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio railroad
the Norfolk station of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad in 1873
Source: Library of Congress, Norfolk & Portsmouth, Virginia 1873