Answer:
The Wilmington & Weldon Railroad (W&W) was the new name adopted in February 1855 by the Wilmington & Raleigh Railroad (completed in 1840), which ran from Wilmington to Weldon by way of Goldsboro and Rocky Mount, bypassing Raleigh. As a central rail link along the Atlantic Coast, it carried heavy traffic during the Civil War and made a considerable profit (in Confederate currency) for its owners. Because the W&W had its own facilities for rerolling iron rails and did not lie in the path of military action until the very end of the war, it suffered somewhat less than many other roads of the region and entered the Reconstruction period dilapidated but intact.
For 20 years after the war, Robert R. Bridgers of Edgecombe County served as president of the W&W. With backers including the Walters family of Baltimore, he developed interlocking directorates, leases, and traffic agreements (using the W&W as a base) that led to the formation of the Atlantic Coast Line Company and the eventual merger with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL). In November 1872 the W&W had been leased to its southern connection, the Wilmington, Columbia, and Augusta, but the lease lapsed when the latter road failed to pay the W&W dividend in 1877. Bridgers and his associates acquired control of the Wilmington, Columbia, and Augusta in October 1879, and in June 1885 they leased it to the W&W for 99 years.
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