I recently stumbled across the ruins of what was once a coal-fired power plant, providing electricity to the city of Charlottesville. The power plant itself was actually owned by the Charlottesville and Albemarle Railway, and the letters "C and A RY" can still be seen on one end of the building. It was abandoned after World War Two, and has since been ravaged by time, vandals, and floodwaters from the nearby Rivanna River.

Not much is really left of the plant... It's really only two large rooms, with large pieces of wall and ceiling missing. Both of the rooms have holes in the floor to the basement level, so care must be taken. The basement level has a number of smaller rooms, all full of debris. There smokestack can be climbed up into, through a hole in a wall of what I guess was the boiler room. A number of rungs are missing from the ladder ascending the inside of the smokestack, presumably to prevent anyone from climbing it.

The Charlottesville Power Plant is small, but cool... and a good example of decay as a result of natural processes.

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