Discover the Trail

Big Pool Junction grew as a transportation link when the Big Pool Train Station was built in 1892 to connect with the B&O Railroad across the river at Cherry Run, WV, and the Western Maryland Railroad’s line between Hagerstown and Big Pool became its busiest section. In the spring of 1904, construction of the Cumberland Extension began there, reaching Hancock by December and Cumberland by March two years later. The Ernstville Road Bridge, built in 1930, carried motor vehicles safely over the Western Maryland Railway, and a concrete culvert overpass replaced it in 1997 as part of the Western Maryland Rail Trail. At Licking Creek, a limestone aquaduct built between 1836 and 1838 spanned 90 feet, the longest of the C&O Canal’s six aquaducts, before railroads ended canals’ usefulness, and modern roads later helped make the western Maryland Line unnecessary. Near Park Head Level, a graveyard dating to the early 1800’s contains numerous marked and unmarked graves, with plain field stones serving as common markers. Around Millstone Point, later called Millstone, a small canal community developed, and during the Civil War several companies of the First Regiment Maryland Infantry were stationed there to protect the C&O Canal from Confederates; nearby, Moffet Station was built when the Cumberland Extension of the Western Maryland Railway came through. Little Pool, nearly a mile long, formed part of the C&O Canal, and a footbridge near its eastern end links the Western Maryland Rail Trail and the C&O Towpath. Near the end of the route, a railroad siding and coal trestle simplified unloading cargo, and Hancock Station, built in 1904-1905 as a combined passenger and freight station, lost passenger service in the early 1950’s.

Hancock, Maryland · United States