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Old Point Comfort
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===20th century=== Rail lines, including the [[New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad]], provided rail car through ferry service from Old Point Comfort to [[Cape Charles, Virginia|Cape Charles]] on the [[Eastern Shore of Virginia]], across the [[Chesapeake Bay]]. At Cape Charles, land route connections to points north could be made with the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad (and its successor parent company, the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]]) on the eastern peninsula to Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia.<ref name=Allen /><ref>{{cite journal |title=Pennsylvania Railroad, Table 78|journal=Official Guide of the Railways |publisher=National Railway Publication Company |volume=78 |issue=12 |date=May 1946}}</ref> The Zero Mile Post for the [[Chesapeake and Ohio Railway]] is also here, and represents the end of the line from which all main line distances were measured between Fort Monroe and Cincinnati.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, Table 2|journal=Official Guide of the Railways |publisher=National Railway Publication Company |volume=54 |issue=1 |date=January 1921}}</ref> The station at Fort Monroe closed in 1939.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=73819|title=The Zero Mile Post Historical Marker|website=www.hmdb.org|access-date=2019-10-07}}</ref> And the Zero Mile Post was shifted north to Phoebus.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, Table 1|journal=Official Guide of the Railways |publisher=National Railway Publication Company |volume=72 |issue=10 |date=March 1940}}</ref> For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, Old Point Comfort was a summer and winter resort in the town of [[Phoebus, Virginia|Phoebus]] in [[Elizabeth City County, Virginia|Elizabeth City County]]. Old Point Comfort is the location of historic [[Fort Monroe]], [[The Chamberlin]], and the [[Old Point Comfort Light]].<ref name="ReferenceA">Old Point Comfort Resort: Hospitality, Health and History on Virginia's Chesapeake Bay. By John V. Quarstein, Julie Steere Clevenger</ref> The pier that was used by government vessels as well as being a routine stopping point for commercial shipping lines was government owned. In 1952 the residents of both the town and county voted to be consolidated with the independent city of Hampton.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> On November 12, 1959, the Army issued notice it was closing the pier and that it would be removed. On January 2, 1960, the Army announced the pier would be open only "at your own risk" to visitors from shore, including guests of the [[The Chamberlin|Chamberlin Hotel]] that overlooked the pier, but closed to boat traffic and travelers. Steamship travel had declined after World War II and the last line using the Old Point Comfort stop was the [[Baltimore Steam Packet Company]] operating as the Old Bay Line. The line's {{ship|SS|City of Richmond|1913|2}} made the last stop at the pier December 30, 1959. Despite a court injunction based on the terms under which Virginia ceded the land to the Federal Government in 1821 the pier was destroyed after federal courts overruled the injunction. The pier was demolished by the end of May 1961.<ref name=Brown>{{cite book |first=Alexander Crosby |last= Brown |title=Steam Packets on the Chesapeake |publisher=Tidewater Publishers |location=Cambridge, Maryland |year=1961 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/steampacketsonch00brow/page/135 135]β138 |lccn=61012580 |isbn=0-87033-111-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/steampacketsonch00brow |access-date=29 August 2019 }}</ref> Old Point Comfort was the site in 1909 where [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptists]] and [[American Baptist Convention|Northern Baptists]] inaugurated negotiations toward a comity agreement.<ref name="Southern Baptists Nationwide">{{cite web |url=http://www.churchplantingvillage.net/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id |publisher=Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, North American Mission Board, SBC |title=Southern Baptists Nationwide |access-date=4 February 2011 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>William H. Brackney, ''Baptists in North America: an historical perspective,'' (2006), p. 70</ref> It was near Old Point Comfort that the {{USS| Missouri |BB-63}}, then the only U.S. battleship in commission, was proceeding seaward on a training mission from Hampton Roads early on January 17, 1950, when she ran aground 1.6 miles (3.0 km) from [[Thimble Shoal Light]],(near Old Point Comfort. She hit shoal water a distance of three ship-lengths from the main channel. Lifted some seven feet above waterline, she stuck hard and fast. With the aid of tugboats, pontoons, and an incoming tide, she was refloated on 1 February 1950 and repaired.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/19991001200828/http://history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/bb63-m4.htm "USS Missouri (BB-63), Grounding, January 1950"], US Navy History, Accessed 2010.8.27.</ref>
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