 His agents began acquiring land in Warwick County in 1865.In the 1880s, he oversaw extension of the C&O's new Peninsula Subdivision, which extended from the Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond southeast down the peninsula through Williamsburg to Newport News, where the company developed coal piers on the harbor of Hampton Roads.His next project was to develop Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, which became the world's largest shipyard.