Union troops pursuing the Confederate army to Virginia after the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 crossed the Potomac River here. Called Berlin at the time of the Civil War, this town experienced the challenges of life on the border. Both the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad here were military targets, yet the town remained an important military communications link during the conflict. Frequent Confederate track-wrecking incursions required Union troops and railroad crews to repair ruined bridges rapidly, and wartime interruptions to canal traffic brought financial hardship to many local citizens. The wooden covered bridge here, completed a few years before the war, was destroyed at the onset of hostilities in 1861 along with bridges at Point of Rocks and Harpers Ferry. In October 1862, a pontoon bridge was constructed near the ruins of the destroyed bridge to allow General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac to pursue General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Antietam. Those pontoons were removed to Fredericksburg, Virginia, in November 1862 to allow Union troops to cross the Rappahannock River. A pair of pontoon bridges was installed here in July 1863, this time with General George G. Meade leading the Army of the Potomac across its namesake river in pursuit of Lee. After the war, the town was relocated, grew, and gained its new name as the railroad achieved greater commercial influence.