NC - North Carolina Transportation Sites

HISTORIC TRANSPORTATION SITES IN NORTH CAROLINA

Compiled by Michael Southern
N.C. State Historic Preservation Office
Office of Archives and History
January 18, 2008

The descriptions in this list are adapted from the following:

A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Eastern North Carolina, by Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, UNC Press 1996

A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina, by Catherine W. Bishir, Michael T. Southern, and Jennifer F. Martin, UNC Press 1999

A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina, by Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, UNC Press 2003

Aviation
Wright Brothers National Memorial

Highway
Pisgah Covered Bridge
Shell Station
Bunker Hill Covered Bridge
Wade Hampton Harris Memorial Bridge
Blue Ridge Parkway

Lighthouses & Lifesaving Station
Currituck Beach Lighthouse and Keeper's Residences
Bodie Island Lighthouse and Keeper's Quarters
Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Ocracoke Lighthouse
Cape Lookout Lighthouse
Bald Head Lighthouse

Pedestrian
Spruce Pine Footbridge

Railroad
Hamlet Passenger Depot
Salisbury Southern Railway Passenger Depot
Spencer Shops State Historic Site
Swannanoa Tunnel

Waterway
Roanoke Canal and Chockoyotte Aqueduct

Currituck Beach Lighthouse and Keeper's Residences
Currituck County
1875; Dexter Stetson, attributed builder; NC 12, Corolla; open to public, May-Oct.

The 158-foot, red brick tower was the last of the great 19th-c. beacons constructed by the Federal Lighthouse Board to guide mariners along the treacherous shoals of the Outer Banks. The 1875 first-order Fresnel lens--the largest size, used in the largest seacoast lighthouses--remains in place. The low, flat coastline made tall lighthouses a necessity along the banks, and the undifferentiated, oft-changing landscape required each tower to be boldly marked to enable sailors to distinguish one location from another. The Currituck lighthouse was left unpainted to distinguish it from the black-and-white-patterned daymarks of the Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, and Cape Lookout lighthouses farther south, all of similar design. Even in this remote outpost, federal design standards combined function and ornament in fine Victorian fashion, ringing the lantern with an ornate, bracketed iron gallery and executing the brick Oil House, frame Double Keeper's Residence, and frame Single Keeper's Residence as picturesque cottages with corbeled chimneys and kingpost gable decorations. Even the original Privy, returned to the site and restored in 1994, emulates a picturesque cottage in its cruciform design with board-and-batten walls and gable decorations. On NC 12 just north of the lighthouse is the former Kill Devil Hills Lifesaving Station (1870s), a board-and-batten Gothic Revival building dating from the first phase of lifesaving station construction on the Outer Banks, moved to this site from Dare Co. in 1986 for use as an office.


Wright Brothers National Memorial
Dare County
Monument, 1928-32, Rogers and Poor; Visitors' Center, 1960, Mitchell/Giurgola (Philadelphia); W side US 158 at milepost 7; Kitty Hawk, open regular hours

The first self-propelled airplane flight in history was made here by Ohioans Orville and Wilbur Wright on Dec. 17, 1903. This is the event celebrated on N.C. automobile license plates with the motto "First in Flight." The towering 60-foot pylon of Mount Airy, N.C., granite, erected by the federal government to commemorate the flight, is carved with a stylized wing design of Art Deco character and stands atop a 90-foot dune. A reconstruction (1953) of the brothers' 1903 camp lies at the base of the hill near the "first flight" area. The visitors' center (1960) is an early work by the Philadelphia firm of Mitchell/Giurgola, which has since achieved international recognition. The concrete structure is elevated slightly above the flat terrain, and the dome over the assembly room echoes the rise of nearby dunes.


Bodie Island Lighthouse and Keeper's Quarters
Dare County
1872; Dexter Stetson, contractor; E side Park Rd., 0.9 mi. from entrance at W side NC 12, 5.8 mi. S of US 64; open to public

The conical brick lighthouse, 163 feet high on a granite foundation, painted with a daymark of broad horizontal stripes to distinguish it from other lighthouses of similar design. It replaced towers built in 1848 and 1859 (the latter destroyed during the Civil War) on the southern side of Oregon Inlet. The small brick oil house at the base is like that at Currituck Beach Lighthouse. The facility was converted from oil to electric light in 1932. The first-order Fresnel lens--the largest, brightest type, used for principal seacoast lighthouses--was installed in 1872 and is still in place. The 2-story brick keeper's quarters (1872) is now a visitors' center.


Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station
Dare County
1874, 1911; Victor Mindeleff, architect; Theodore S. Meekins (Manteo), builder; E side NC 12 at SR 1247, Rodanthe; open limited hours

The most intact and best known of the state's lifesaving stations is an evocative and popular attraction at the beach. One of the original seven built in N.C. by the Lifesaving Service, the 1874 board-and-batten station was converted into a boathouse when a new shingle-style station with lookout tower was constructed in 1911. Designed for the Lifesaving Service by architect Victor Mindeleff, the 1911 Chicamacomico station with columned porch and dormers became a prototype for other stations. The stations from both eras, plus supporting structures such as water tanks and storage buildings, survive as the state's most complete lifesaving station complex, with museum and exhibits tracing an exciting era in the history of the Atlantic coast. Crews of Chicamacomico took part in some of the most daring rescues along the coast. The most famous came in 1918: after a German U-boat torpedoed the British tanker Mirlo, Chicamacomico surfmen braved seas aflame with oil to rescue the British seamen. The crewmen were awarded gold medals of honor by the British and U.S. governments for their heroism.


Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Dare County
1870; Dexter Stetson, contractor; S side NC 12, Buxton; open to public April to mid-October

The tallest brick lighthouse in the United States rises 208 feet and is painted with a daymark of black-and-white spiral stripes. The towering beacon stands at Cape Hatteras, one of the most dangerous points along the Outer Banks, where clashing air and water currents, the extensive Diamond Shoals, and the absence of natural landmarks made sea travel perilous. The frequent shipwrecks in the area gained this zone the title of "Graveyard of the Atlantic." The first lighthouse here was completed in 1803, an octagonal structure of stone and brick 90 feet tall plus a 12-foot lantern; it was blown up in 1870 when this lighthouse was completed. When the U.S. government began to improve shipping safety along the coast after the Civil War, construction of a new lighthouse at Hatteras was a top priority. It was completed in 1870 and painted with its spiral striping in 1873. Originally the lighthouse had a first-order Fresnel lens in keeping with its importance as a major coastal beacon. The present DCB 24 optic was installed in 1972. With its modern electric beacon still in use, the Hatteras light serves as the primary navigational aid for mariners rounding the treacherous Diamond Shoals. Other buildings remain from its long history, including a small brick oil house, brick keeper's quarters (1871), and a 2-story frame keeper's quarters (1854), now a visitors' center. Threatened by beach erosion, the lighthouse was moved to a secure site in 1999.


Ocracoke Lighthouse
Hyde County
1823; Noah Porter, builder; N side SR 1326 [Lighthouse Rd.], Ocracoke

The sturdy, 69-foot, stuccoed, conical brick tower is the oldest active lighthouse in N.C. and second oldest standing after Bald Head Lighthouse in Brunswick Co. It replaced a beacon erected in the 1790s on Shell Castle Island, just inside the inlet, and was built at a cost of over $11,000 by Noah Porter of Massachusetts, who also constructed the adjacent Keeper's Quarters. The lighthouse walls taper from 5 feet thick at the base, and a cast-iron dome and finial tops the structure. The lens is a fourth-order Fresnel type--a relatively small lens--installed in 1899. Now under the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard, the lighthouse operates with an automatic light visible 14 miles at sea.


Cape Lookout Lighthouse
Carteret County
1857-59; S end of Core Banks; public access to exterior only

The first of the big lighthouses along the N.C. coast, this is the second lighthouse erected at Cape Lookout, midway between the beacons at Cape Fear and Cape Hatteras. It is one of three antebellum lighthouses surviving in N.C.--along with Bald Head Lighthouse and Ocracoke Lighthouse--and served as a prototype for the major lighthouses subsequently erected on the Outer Banks. The masonry structure, 169 feet high, went into operation on Nov. 1, 1859, with a first-order Fresnel lens; the light now has a DCB 24 optic. In 1873 the shaft was painted in black-and-white diagonal checkers to identify it to passing ships, and a keeper's dwelling was built. The lighthouse is still in active use with an automated light, but like the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse it is threatened by erosion. Part of Cape Lookout National Seashore, the site is accessible by ferry services from Beaufort or Harkers Island.


Bald Head Lighthouse
Brunswick County
1817; Daniel S. Way, builder)
Bald Head Island

Bald Head Island’s strategic location among the shoals at the mouth of the Cape Fear River's mouth has made it a site for lighthouses since 1794. Bald Head Lighthouse is the oldest in the state, a 110-foot octagonal tower of brick faced with stucco and trimmed with brownstone. Its walls taper from about 5 feet thick at the base to about 3 feet at the top. Their weathered texture enhances the lighthouse's image of strength prevailing through countless storms. The light originally had fifteen lamps and reflectors, but these have been removed, and the lighthouse is no longer operational.


Roanoke Canal and Chockoyotte Aqueduct
Halifax County
1819-23 (Hamilton Fulton, engineer), 1890s-1904; Roanoke Rapids to Weldon; portions accessible as part of local park

One of the nation's best examples of early 19th-c. canal construction is the 7-mile canal built to bypass the rapids and handle the 44-foot drop at the Great Falls of the Roanoke River--a stream the Indians had called "the river of death." (The river was dammed in the 20th c. to create lakes and reduce flooding.) The canal and its locks were part of the ambitious--though never fully realized--Roanoke Navigation System intended to connect the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. Much of the construction was planned and supervised by Hamilton Fulton, an English civil engineer trained under John Rennie and Thomas Telford in Britain, who had come to N.C. in 1819 to plan and direct the state's internal improvements. At the falls of the Roanoke he entered a project already begun, but it was he who designed the aqueduct and other key elements. After Fulton left N.C. in 1826, additional stages of the navigation system were completed. Traffic through the canal and along the river thrived for a time, but like many early 19th-c. canals, success was cut short by competition from railroads within a few years. Late in the 19th c. a project was begun to rebuild the old canal as a power source for local factories (including the Weldon Corn Mill), but this endeavor soon dwindled in the face of competition from Roanoke Rapids.
Important remains of the Roanoke Canal exist along the route from above Roanoke Rapids downstream to Weldon. At Roanoke Rapids are the cut-stone Locks (W side NC 48, just S of Roanoke River, Roanoke Rapids), the first of a series of double locks, each of which had a lift of 9 feet. The structure of fitted, coursed stone includes stone ducts for filling and emptying the locks. The two brick Power Houses (1901) here were built as part of the Roanoke Navigation and Water Power Company's effort to use the canal as an energy source. Several deep cuts and other features also survive along the canal route.
The most spectacular structure is the fine, dressed stone Chockoyotte Aqueduct just west of Weldon (1821@-23; N side US 158, trailhead at end of SR 1704/1705 access road, A. Edwin Akers Park), which carried the canal across Chockoyotte Creek. The aqueduct, which Fulton designed and supervised, was described in an 1831 report: "[Of] excellent workmanship and beautiful [,] it is formed of hewn stone, very neatly dressed, and of the most durable quality, resting on a rock foundation. It is 110 feet long, its greatest height 35 feet, and has a clear width of waterway of 18 feet; the arch has a span of 30 feet, is 29 feet wide, and is elevated 22 feet above the surface of the creek at common height." The tight masonry joints between the cut stones are only about 1//8 inch wide; skillfully laid voussoirs form the arch over the stream. Except for minor repairs the aqueduct stands as built.


Hamlet Passenger Depot
Richmond County
1900; between Main St. and Hamlet Ave. at tracks, Hamlet
Open to public

At the intersection of New York-to-Florida and Wilmington-to-Charlotte rail lines, Hamlet was the hub of what was the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (now part of CSX). The passenger depot is the centerpiece of town and one of the state's finest turn of the century passenger stations. It displays characteristic elements of small-town train stations--splayed eaves, pent roofs, brackets, and projecting bays--expanded to serve the juncture of two main lines. Two long perpendicular wings join at a great circular pavilion that housed the stationmaster and permitted views in all four directions. Its broad conical roof merges with those of the wings, with deep, splayed eaves carried by chamfered triangular brackets. Below, a second broader pent roof sweeps around the building to shelter the passenger platform. Well into the 20th c., the station was a major stop en route from the Northeast and the Deep South. The building has been moved from its original location to a site across the tracks and restored as a railroad museum.


Pisgah Covered Bridge
Randolph County
ca. 1910; J.J. Welch, builder; SR 1109, 0.5 mi. S of SR 1112, Pisgah; public access

The 40-foot covered bridge is one of only two such bridges surviving in the state, where once there were hundreds. (Cf. Bunker Hill Bridge, Catawba Co.) This one is believed to have been privately built. Four dry-wall stone piers support the bridge, which is built with a modified queen-post truss system and braces sheathed to form small buttress-like supports. Since 1998 the bridge has been maintained in a cooperative arrangement between the North Carolina Zoo Society, the N.C. Department of Transportation, the Land Trust for Central North Carolina, and the Piedmont Land Conservancy. The bridge was washed downstream during a flood in 2003, but 90% of the original materials were recovered and it has been restored.


Shell Station
Forsyth County
ca. 1930; Peachtree and Sprague Sts., Winston-Salem

The little shell-shaped building was constructed by the Quality Oil Co. to attract public attention to their Shell Oil products. Built around a wooden and wire frame in a patented design, the concrete structure was cast and molded on-site. Of eight built in the early 1930s, this sole survivor has been restored by Preservation North Carolina and used as a regional field office.


Salisbury Southern Railway Passenger Depot
Rowan County
1907-1908; Frank Pierce Milburn
Depot St., Salisbury

The state's finest surviving depot. Milburn's dramatic Spanish Mission style station combines strict symmetry with romantic curvilinear gables, colorful tile roof, arched openings, and strongly geometric central tower. Once every N. C. city of consequence prided itself on large and elegant railroad depot, but nearly all have been lost or desperately altered, leaving this as the finest remnant of a once grand breed. The station has been restored for renewed service as an Amtrak station and multipurpose community center.


Spencer Shops State Historic Site
Rowan County
1896-1935; Salisbury Ave., Spencer. Open regular hours

A spectacular industrial site and one of the largest railroad shops in the country. The Southern Railway Company, organized from other firms in 1894, absorbed many lines during the height of American corporate expansion, and leased the old North Carolina Railroad in 1895. The firm decided to relocate the company shops from present Burlington to a point midway between Washington and Atlanta. Salisbury political leaders assisted in selecting and obtaining the 168-acre tract, named for company president Samuel Spencer. In 1896 the first big buildings were built, the Machine Shop, Roundhouse, and Offices. Expansion continued, with the 600-foot long Back Shop built in 1904-1905, a new 37-stall Roundhouse with its 100-foot turntable erected in 1924, and many other structures as well. In the period when the railroad was the dominant element in the nation's economy, Spencer became the largest heavy repair facility on the Southern system. By 1932, in a single day, 75 engines were turned out for light repairs, one engine was completely rebuilt, and cars for as many as 21 passenger trains and 24 freight trains were serviced and re-assembled into trains. The work force was between 2,200 and 2,500. The transition from steam to diesel power, which the Southern Railway underwent swiftly after World War II, eventually led to the closing of the shops in 1960. Donated to the state, the complex is under renovation as an ambitious innovative center interpreting the history of transportation. The complex, particularly the vast Back Shop and Roundhouse, composes a huge artifact of incredible complexity and scale, its cavernous buildings evoking the past drama of the nation's rail age. Open to public as a developing state historic site.


Bunker Hill Covered Bridge
Catawba County
1895, 1900; Andrew L. Ramsour, builder; in Conner Park, entrance N side US 70, 2.1 mi. W of jct./w NC 10, Claremont vicinity; open to public regular hours

The 80 foot bridge is one of only two surviving covered bridges in the state (cf. Pisgah Covered Bridge, Randolph Co.). It is also possibly the last wooden bridge in the U.S. with Haupt truss construction, a system patented in 1839 by Herman Haupt, a U.S. Army military engineer. Builder Ramsour operated a saw mill and toll bridge at Horseford north of Hickory; the famous 1,000 foot covered bridge there over the Catawba was built c. 1850 and destroyed in the great flood of 1916. Ramseur constructed the open span in 1895; the roof and board-and-batten siding were added by the county about five years later. Taking its name from a nearby farm, the Bunker Hill bridge crosses Lyle's Creek on what was called the Old Island Ford Road. It was restored by the Catawba County Historical Association in 1994, and is accessible to the public along a foot trail in a county park.


Wade Hampton Harris Memorial Bridge
Wilkes County
1931; SR 1389 (old US 421) over South Prong Lewis Fork Creek, just N of US 421

One of the state's most dramatic reinforced concrete arch bridges, the single rib-arched open spandrel structure is 312 feet long and 114 feet high, with the arch spanning 150 feet. The second highest bridge in the state when completed, it improved automobile access to Boone and northwestern N.C. along old US 421. It was named for a Charlotte newspaper publisher and promoter of improved roads and mountain tourism. With the completion of a new highway and bridge in the late 20th c., it now carries a secondary public road and can be viewed broadside north of the new bridge.


Swannanoa Tunnel
Buncombe County
1879; Begins S side I-40, 0.3 mi. W of McDowell Co. line, Ridgecrest

The 1,800 foot tunnel was the last and longest of the tunnels necessary to bring the rails of the Western North Carolina Railroad over the Blue Ridge. Crews worked from both ends after a locomotive was hauled on temporary tracks over the gap. Maj. James Wilson, in charge of the project, telegrammed Zebulon Vance on Mar. 11, 1879: "Daylight entered Buncombe today through Swannanoa Tunnel. Grade and centers met exactly." Nearly 125 men, mostly convicts, died working on the Old Fort to Ridgecrest section of the line. John Ehle's novel, The Road, gives a vivid narrative of the perilous endeavor.


Spruce Pine Footbridge
Mitchell County
1929; near E end Locust St.
Spruce Pine

The 400-foot-long structure combines a steel deck truss and steel pylons, spanning the North Toe River and the Clinchfield Railroad (now CSX). The state's longest pedestrian bridge, it was built as a joint project of the town and the Clinchfield to provide students safe access to Harris School on the south side of the river.


Blue Ridge Parkway
Multi-County

See the description p85-88 in A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina.