Business View Civil and Municipal | March 2021

161 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL MARCH 2021 BR I STOL , V I RGINI A one community that is split into two states and two cities. And because of that, each side of town has its own city government, its own police department, its own fire department, its own school system. There are different state laws that affect a lot of things, different systems of taxation, but yet when it comes to tourism and economic development and promoting the region, particularly anything in our downtown which straddles that state line, we try to work together as best we can as one community for the benefit of all.” Coming together is literally what the community was built on. The Virginia and Tennessee Railroads reached the state lines in 1856. That once incongruous convergence is what led to early development. Originally the railroads used different gauges. Trains would have to stop so their cargo could be unloaded and reloaded on a different train on the other side. Entrepreneurs saw an opportunity and Bristol became the