The B&O Railroad reached Martinsburg in 1842, and by 1849 a roundhouse and shops had been built there. Those first buildings were burned by Confederate troops in 1862. The present west roundhouse and the two shops were built in 1866, and the east roundhouse was built in 1872. These buildings are one of the last remaining examples of American industrial railroad architecture still intact and in use, and they recall the railroad’s status in the mid-19th century and its role in the economic development of Martinsburg, the county, and the state. On July 16, 1877, workers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad went on strike and closed the railroad yard to protest a cut in wages. Their action sparked the largest nationwide strike the country had yet seen. Extensive damage was done to company property at Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Wheeling, and more than 50 workers were killed before the strike was crushed. Federal troops were used for the first time in a labor dispute, and the country’s first general strike focused national attention on labor grievances and made workers aware of the power of collective action.
