The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was formed in 1869 in Virginia, reaching from the capital city, Richmond, to the Ohio River by 1873, and established Huntington, West Virginia. Tapping the coal reserves of West Virginia, the C&O's Peninsula Extension to new coal piers on the harbor of Hampton Roads resulted in the creation of the new City of Newport News. Coal revenues also led the forging of a rail link to the Midwest, eventually reaching Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo in Ohio and Chicago, Illinois.
By the early 1960s, the C&O was headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1972 it became part of the CHESSIE SYSTEM, along with the Baltimore and Ohio and Western Maryland Railway. The CHESSIE SYSTEM was later combined with the Seaboard Coast Line and Louisville and Nashville, both the primary components of the FAMILY LINES SYSTEM, to become a key portion of CSX TRANSPORTATION in the 1980's. A substantial portion of CONRAIL was added in 1998.
C&O's passenger services ended in 1971 with the formation of AMTRAK. Today, Amtrak's Cardinal passenger trains continue to follow the historic and scenic route of the C&O through the New River Gorge in one of the more rugged sections of the WVA. The rails of the former C&O also continue to transport intermodal and freight traffic, as well as West Virginia bituminous coal, east to Hampton Roads and west to the Great Lakes as part of CSXT.
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