The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P) operated from Baltimore, Maryland, southwest to Washington, D.C., from 1872 to 1902. Owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was the second railroad company to connect the nation's capital to the Northeastern U.S., and competed with the older Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
 Train crossing High Bridge over Gwynns Falls in Baltimore County, Maryland on the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad line. | |
| Industry | Rail transport |
|---|---|
| Founded | May 6, 1853 |
| Founder | |
| Defunct | November 1, 1902 |
| Fate | Merged with Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad |
| Successor | Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
Area served | |
| Revenue |
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| Total assets |
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Part of the B&P route is now part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, the most heavily traveled American intercity passenger line; and of the Penn Line of the Maryland Transit Administration's MARC commuter train service. Both its Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, bored under north Baltimore in 1871 and the Virginia Avenue Tunnel built in Southeast Washington in 1870,[2] remain in use, though the latter was significantly changed in 2014-15.
History
editOrigins and Construction
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The leading advocate for expanding the railroad system into southern Maryland was Walter Bowie, who wrote newspaper articles and columns under the pen name Patuxent Planter and who joined Thomas Fielder Bowie, William Duckett Bowie, and Oden Bowie (later Governor of Maryland), in lobbying the Maryland General Assembly to approve the idea. Their efforts bore fruit on May 6, 1853, when lawmakers chartered the "Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road Company",[3][4]: 333–334 granting it the authority to construct a railroad from Baltimore via Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County and Port Tobacco in neighboring Charles County to a point on the Potomac River between Liverpool Point and the St. Mary's River in St. Mary's County, southernmost in the state. The charter also allowed the construction of branches of up to 20 miles (32 km) in length. Preliminary surveying began in 1855.[5]
The B&P was organized on December 19, 1858, and began surveying the route in earnest on May 3, 1859. Construction was then delayed by the American Civil War.
In 1866, the B&P sought permission to build a branch into Washington from a point within 2 miles of the Collington (now Bowie) Post Office in Prince George's County and also signed a contract to begin construction of the main line between Baltimore and the Potomac.[6][7] The B&P was working with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and its ally, the Northern Central Railway (NCRY), which wanted its own route to Washington, DC and Virginia. Congress granted permission in an act approved February 5, 1867 and construction of the railroad started for the section between the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad and Upper Marlboro in the next year.[8][9][10] Work on the line from Bowie to the District started around the same time.[11]
In 1869, the railroad was granted permission to use a right-of-way through the city of Baltimore, and to build an 800 foot long tunnel in the northwest of the city, to connect to the Northern Central Railway (NCRY).[12] By the end of that year, the right-of-way had been graded from the Patapsco to the District Line and from Bowie to Upper Marlboro; and several small bridges had been constructed.[13]
In 1870, the B&P was granted permission by Congress to extend their Washington branch across the Long Bridge to Virginia.[14] At the same time, the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway, chartered in 1864, was gaining permission to connect to Alexandria and thus the Long Bridge and the future B&P. By the summer of 1870, work was underway on both the Virginia Avenue Tunnel and the Anacostia Railroad Bridge.[15][16]
The new Baltimore-Washington line opened on July 2, 1872 - the same day the Alexandria and Fredericksburg opened between Fredericksburg and Quantico. The Potomac Railroad between Quantico and Fredericksburg had opened in May of 1872. The final section, the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel under Winchester Street and Wilson Street in Baltimore, opened on June 29, 1873, connecting the line to the PRR's Northern Central Railway (north to Harrisburg) and Baltimore's new Union Station. That year or the next, the Union Railroad also opened, extending the line eastward through another tunnel to the PRR's other Baltimore line, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) northeast to Delaware and Pennsylvania.[17] Together the new railroads connected Baltimore, and the northern railroads, to Richmond and all of the Southern rail.
The required "main line" to Popes Creek on the Potomac River opened on January 1, 1873 and was immediately relegated to branch status.
Baltimore and Potomac Station in Washington, D.C.
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The first Baltimore and Potomac station in Washington was a simple wood-frame structure. A more substantial brick and stone building opened in 1873 at the southwest corner of Sixth Street and B Street NW, later renamed Constitution Avenue.[4]: 340 This is the present site of the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, on the National Mall.[18][page needed] The station was built over the old Washington City Canal, which complicated the construction of the foundation.[4]: 340 Tracks ran south from the station along Sixth Street to a wye junction at Sixth Street SW, Maryland Avenue SW, and Virginia Avenue SW.
On the morning of July 2, 1881, U.S. President James A. Garfield was shot in the waiting room of the B&P station in Washington, D.C.[19] Although the shot was not fatal, he died in September 1881 as a result of infections from the injury.
On November 1, 1902, B&P was consolidated with PW&B to form the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PB&W), also controlled by PRR.[20][21]
New Washington Union Station alignment
editThe Washington Terminal Company and its Union Station opened in 1907, serving the PB&W, the B&O and several other railroads. All PB&W passenger trains from Baltimore were diverted to a new alignment called the Magruder Branch, splitting from the old one at Landover and running west to run parallel with the B&O Washington Branch on the approach to the new station.[22]
In 1968, the line has passed under control of Penn Central, followed by Conrail and Amtrak. Since the breakup of Conrail in 1999, Norfolk Southern has provided freight service over the main line. However, the Pope's Creek Subdivision, originally part of the chartered main line, is operated by CSX Transportation.
Branches
editCatonsville
editThe Catonsville Short Line Railroad opened in 1884 and was immediately leased by the Baltimore & Potomac. This provided a short branch from just south of Baltimore to Catonsville.
Southern Maryland Line
editThe 48.7-mile (78.4 km) branch to Popes Creek was part of the original chartered main line, but from opening it was operated as a branch of the main line from the junction at Bowie. The main line from Bowie to Washington, a distance of 17.1 miles (27.5 km), was provided for in the charter as a branch.
There was a passenger and freight station at Collington on the Southern Maryland Line.[23][24] Today, a 5,200-foot railroad siding is all that remains of this stop, although the spur is still in use. It is located at milepost 3.0 on the spur,[25] just south of where the spur crosses under Maryland Route 450 near Maryland Route 197.[26]
References
edit- ^ a b Poor's Manual of Railroads. Vol. 26. p. 972.
- ^ "Letters from Washington". The Baltimore Sun. August 10, 1870.
- ^ Maryland General Assembly. Chapter 194 of the 1853 Session Laws of Maryland, May 6, 1853
- ^ a b c Wilson, William Bender (1895). History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company: With Plan of Organization. Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Company – via Archive.org.
- ^ "AFFAIRS IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY". The Baltimore Sun. February 16, 1855.
- ^ "Baltimore and Potomac Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. December 20, 1866.
- ^ "The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Put Under Contract". The Baltimore Sun. August 20, 1866.
- ^ "Important Railroad Matters". The Baltimore Sun. February 19, 1869.
- ^ "Baltimore and Potomac Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. September 9, 1867.
- ^ "Baltimore and Potomac Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. July 24, 1868.
- ^ "Baltimore and Potomac Railroad". The Baltimore Sun. September 7, 1868.
- ^ "Local Matters". The Baltimore Sun. May 15, 1869.
- ^ "BALTIMORE AND POTOMAC RAILROAD". The Baltimore Sun. December 2, 1869.
- ^ "Letter From Washington". The Baltimore Sun. June 23, 1870.
- ^ "Letter from Washington". The Baltimore Sun. August 11, 1870.
- ^ "Letter from Washington". The Baltimore Sun. August 10, 1870.
- ^ Netzlof, Robert T. (June 12, 2002). "Corporate Genealogy Union Railroad". Archived from the original on December 14, 2007. Retrieved October 1, 2007.
- ^ Goode, James W. (2003). Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington's Destroyed Buildings (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books. ISBN 1-58834-105-4.
- ^ "Garfield Still Lives". Pittsburgh Daily Post. July 4, 1881. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Another Merger: Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Stockholders Ratify Agreement". Reading Times. Reading, Pennsylvania. August 22, 1902. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Kuhn, Loeb & Co. (December 29, 1903). "$10,000,000 Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company". Evening Star. Washington, D.C. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "PRR Chronology: 1907" (PDF). PRR Research. Philadelphia Chapter, Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society. March 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 3, 2011. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
- ^ The Official railway guide: North American freight service edition. Philadelphia: National Railway Publication Co. 1889. p. 230 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Sacred Heart Church - The Parish with Colonial Roots - since 1728". Sacred Heart Church. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2007.
- ^ "CSXT - Popes Creek Subdivision". The Mainline. 2000. Archived from the original on July 7, 2007. Retrieved June 13, 2007.
- ^ Hogan, Reverend John F. (1975). Sacred Heart Chapel 1741-1975: A Monograph on the Foundation and the Development of the old Sacred Heart Church - White Marsh.
External links
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- Corporate Genealogy - Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MD-163, "Baltimore & Potomac Interlocking Tower", 11 photos, 27 data pages, 2 photo caption pages