Virginia Board of Public Works

Virginia Board of Public Works
Agency overview
Formed	February 5, 1816
Dissolved	February 28, 1903
Jurisdiction	Virginia
Headquarters	Richmond, Virginia
Parent department	Governor of Virginia

The Virginia Board of Public Works was a governmental agency which oversaw and helped finance the development of Virginia's transportation-related internal improvements during the 19th century. In that era, it was customary to invest public funds in private companies, which were the forerunners of the public service and utility companies of modern times. The state often invested in up to 40% of the stock to build turnpikes, toll bridges, canals, and water and rail transportation enterprises. A January 2, 1822, House Report from the Committee on Roads and Canals noted that

Virginia, in 1816, enacted a law, creating a board of public works, with power to appoint engineers and surveyors, and, also, creating a fund, to be applied exclusively to the rendering navigable, and uniting by canals, the principal rivers, and more intimately connecting, by means of public highways, the different parts of the commonwealth.^[1]

Claudius Crozet: Virginia's State Engineer

Antebellum period

was exceptionally well-documented.

Massive state debt

In 1861, with the onset of the American Civil War, Virginia's investments in "Public Works" was interrupted. The State had purchased a total of $48,000,000 worth of stock in turnpike, toll bridge, canal, and water and rail transportation enterprises.

After the War, many of the improvements had been destroyed but the debt remained to be paid. This state debt became a major issue during

U.S. Senate during the short administration of President James A. Garfield

, who was assassinated. By the 1890s, the Readjusters were no longer a major force, and Conservative Democrats ruled Virginia until the late 1960s.

Virginia's infrastructure debt issue with West Virginia was finally resolved in 1915, when the

United States Supreme Court

ruled that West Virginia owed Virginia $12,393,929.50. The final installment of this sum was paid off in 1939.

Shift from financing to regulatory role, creation of SCC

After the

Virginia State Corporation Commission

in 1903.

Historical archives

Hundreds of plans and drawings of the Board of Public Works have been retained in the archives of the Library of Virginia. Many are available for viewing on-line through the Internet.

The Library of Virginia's official website notes: "Few collections in other archival institutions are comparable. Over the years, researchers have used the records for many purposes.

right-of-way questions. Field survey notes help identify changes in topography

and aid in the location of archaeological sites. Surprising as it may seem, sketches made in the 1830s and 1850s of county boundaries are still consulted today."

References

^ "H. Rept. 17-8 - Report of the Committee on Roads and Canals, on the subject of internal improvements, accompanied with a bill to procure the necessary surveys, &c. on the subject of roads and canals. January 2, 1822. Read, and, with the bill, committed to a Committee of the Whole on the third Monday of January instant". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 4. Retrieved 24 June 2023.

External links

[1] "H. Rept. 17-8 - Report of the Committee on Roads and Canals, on the subject of internal improvements, accompanied with a bill to procure the necessary surveys, &c. on the subject of roads and canals. January 2, 1822. Read, and, with the bill, committed to a Committee of the Whole on the third Monday of January instant". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 4. Retrieved 24 June 2023.

[1]