Comments:

According to a press release from Qwest dated Janurary 7th, 1999 these facilities support a Washington, D.C. to Charlotte, NC route. Due to the use of modern fiber optics the spacing between Qwest's facilities is about 60 miles. Additionally, Qwest has combined Amplifer functionality with their POP sites so what you see here are actually Qwest POPs, some of which are also amplifer sites.

As a whole this route follows CSX (ex C&O) rail right of way from Richmond to Doswell where the route merges on to RF&P trackage with MCI fiber. From Doswell the route goes towards Fredericksburg and from Fredicksburg into the Northern Virginia suburbs, presumably to some point in Washington, DC (such as the Southwest) tandem office.

From Richmond the route seems to head to some point south and then follows Norfolk Southern trackage into the seven cities area. The original termination point was probably in Norfolk (most likely the Bute Street tandem), but that may have been changed when Qwest moved into a building infront of Alltel's modular switch site in Chesapeake (this was Alltel's CLEC operations now owned by Level 3). From Norfolk/Chesapeake the route continues along CSX trackage, occasionally accompanied by AT&T and GTE (whats that doing here?) fiber. However, once in Franklin the route continues, alone, along CSX trackage to Garysburg, NC where it is joined by MCI fiber coming out of Richmond. From Garysburg the route heads into Rocky Mount where cable tracing has stoped for now (thats 3 horus from the Telebeans southern central command!).

This bowed route is popular with modern fiber networks such as AT&T/PF.net's next generation network as a means of getting to the Norfolk LATA without having to do alot of underwater trenching.

Route facilities:

Facility	Site
Facility ID: "DC POP"? Location: 1500 Eckington Pl. NE Washington, DC Picture Date: 12/2002 Comments: building shared with XM Radio studios	Coming soon!
Facility ID: Fredericksburg ROW POP? Location: Fredericksburg, VA Picture Date: 12/2004 Comments: interconnect w/Sprint? interconnect w/MCI?
Facility ID: Richmond ROW POP? Location: 727 Hospital St. Richmond, VA Picture Date: 05/22/2005 Comments: Backhaul point for Metrocall USA
Facility ID: Waverly ROW POP? Location: 4398 E. General Mahone Hwy. Sussex Co., VA Picture Date: 05/22/2004 Comments: interconnect with GTE
Facility ID: Branchville ROW POP Location: 13615 Hugo Rd. Hugo, Southampton Co., VA Picture Date: 05/11/2004 Comments: interconnect with Dominion Telecom
Facility ID: Rocky Mount, N.C. Location: off of Goldleaf St. along CSX RR Rocky Mount, Nash Co., NC Picture Date: 08/24/2004 Comments: