The East Wetzel Trail follows the bed of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, whose line from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, Virginia, later West Virginia, was completed on Christmas Eve 1852. Crossing the Alleghenies, this route tackled the most challenging mountain terrain ever attempted and required eleven tunnels, including Glover Gap, Sole, Martin, Marshall, and Board Tree in this area, with Board Tree becoming especially notable in Baltimore and Ohio history. Burton grew into an important passenger and freight stop and the largest Civil War marshaling yard in the western section of the railroad. Hundred, settled by Henry and Hannah Church, was a flagstop and became a tourist attraction as the home of the “oldest couple in the states.” Littleton, with its oil and gas industry, gained national importance during the Civil War when Union forces opened an iron ore mine there and shipped ore east for ammunition. The railroad’s construction helped these towns thrive during the railroad’s heyday. In its early years, the Baltimore and Ohio commissioned artists and illustrators to depict the technology and promote tourism, and in July 1858 David Hunter Strother, known as “Porte Crayon,” created illustrations of the 108-year-old Henry Church and his family that were later published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. As trains passed, conductors pointed out “Old Hundred,” and the railroad’s tourism efforts influenced the town’s name of Hundred.