The Georgetown Branch Railroad

The Georgetown Branch Railroad began as part of the Baltimore and Ohio's late 1880s plan to create a major rail link from its Metropolitan Branch in Silver Spring, Maryland, to northern Virginia and southern rail lines by crossing the Potomac near Chain Bridge, but although financial difficulties in the 1890s delayed construction, the railroad completed only the line from Silver Spring to Georgetown in 1910 and never built the proposed bridge or Virginia section. The single-track line was intended for freight rather than passengers and carried mainly coal to Georgetown and building supplies to Chevy Chase and Bethesda. Along its route, key works included the Rock Creek trestle, the Arizona Avenue trestle, and the Delacarlia Tunnel, and the line was even temporarily extended across Rock Creek in 1914 to bring limestone for construction of the Lincoln Memorial. As rail competition eased in the early 1900s and the Baltimore and Ohio gained access through Washington into Virginia, the broader scheme became unnecessary. Freight demand declined steadily after World War Two, few trains used the line after 1980, and after corporate takeovers by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1963 and CSX in the 1980s, the last train ran in 1985. An abandonment application followed in 1986, but local efforts to preserve the corridor led to its conversion into the Capital Crescent Trail.

Brookmont, Maryland · United States