Washington and Old Dominion Railroad

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Lewis McKenzie, between 1860 and 1875

A Union Army train running on the line was the focus of a Confederate States Army attack in the 1861 Battle of Vienna, Virginia

Originally incorporated as the Alexandria and Harper's Ferry Railroad, construction on the line began in 1855 by the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire (AL&H) Railroad under the presidency of Lewis McKenzie.[2] Initially intended to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River to reach the coal fields in the western part of Hampshire County, Virginia, that are now within Mineral County, West Virginia, the AL&H began operating to Vienna in 1859 from a terminal near Princess and Fairfax Streets in Alexandria's present Old Town neighborhod.[3]

In 1860, the AL&H reached Leesburg in Loudoun County, with plans to extend the line westward through Hillsborough, Vestal's Gap, Berryville, Winchester and Romney. The line would terminate in Paddy Town (now Keyser, West Virginia), where it would make connections with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.[3][4][5][6] Construction may have proceeded pursuant to those plans, as an 1864 Confederate army map shows that the railroad's tracks had passed Leesburg, crossed Catoctin Mountain at Clarke's Gap and passed Hillsborough.[7]

Because of its proximity to Washington, D.C., the line saw much use and disruption during the Civil War.[8] After the war, the name of the line was changed in 1870 to the Washington and Ohio Railroad.[9] After changing its planned route to enable it to cross the Blue Ridge through Snickers Gap rather than the more northerly Vestal's Gap, the railroad extended its line from Leesburg to Hamilton in 1870 and to Round Hill in 1874.[10]

Upon acquisition by new owners in the 1880s, the line's name was changed twice: first to the Washington and Western Railroad in 1882 and in the next year to the Washington, Ohio and Western (WO&W) Railroad.[11] However, the line did not serve Washington, Ohio, or the West.

In 1886, the Richmond and Danville Railroad, whose trunk line travelled between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta with connections to New York City, New Orleans, Mississippi and Florida, leased the WO&W.[12][13] The Richmond and Danville also acquired a branch that paralleled the WO&W while traveling between Manassas and Strasburg, Virginia, where it connected to railroads in the Shenandoah Valley west of the Blue Ridge that the WO&W did not reach (see: Manassas Gap Railroad).[12][13] In 1888, the Richmond and Danville began to operate the WO&W's trains between Washington, D.C., and Round Hill.[12][13]

In 1894, the newly formed Southern Railway absorbed the Richmond and Danville Railroad and acquired the WO&W.[14][15][16] In 1900, the Southern Railway extended the line westward for four miles from Round Hill to Bluemont (formerly Snickersville).[17] The Southern Railway designated the line as its Bluemont Branch.[14][15]

John Roll McLean (1904)

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Stephen Benton Elkins

By 1908, steam locomotives were hauling Southern Railway passenger trains from the new Union Station in Washington, D.C., to Alexandria Junction (north of old town Alexandria), where they switched to travel westward on the Bluemont Branch.[14] Connecting trains shuttled passengers between Alexandria Junction and the former AL&H terminal in old town Alexandria.[14] On weekends, express trains carried vacationers from Washington to Bluemont and other towns in western Loudoun County in which resorts had developed.[14][15][18]

Meanwhile, in 1906, electric trolleys began to run on the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad (GF&OD) northwest to Great Falls from Georgetown in Washington, D.C.[19][20] The line, which John Roll McLean and Stephen Benton Elkins owned at the time, crossed the Potomac River on the old Aqueduct Bridge and passed through Rosslyn. The trolleys then traveled northwest on a double-tracked line through Arlington and Fairfax County to reach an amusement park (trolley park) that the railroad company constructed and operated near the falls.[19]

• 
  Confederate States Army map of Maryland and northern Virginia showing the route of the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad, 1864
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  United States military map of Washington, D.C. and northeastern Virginia, showing the route of the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad, 1865
• 
  G.M. Hopkins map of Alexandria County, Virginia, showing the route of the Washington and Ohio Railroad, 1878
• 
  Richmond & Danville Railroad system map showing branch to Round Hill,1891
• 
  Richmond & Danville Railroad system map showing branch to Round Hill, 1893
• 
  Southern Railway system map showing branch to Round Hill, 1895

Diagram of Washington area trolley lines c. 1920–1925 (enlargeable image showing the Great Falls Division of the W&OD Railway in dark green and the Bluemont Division in light green).

In 1911, McLean and Elkins formed a new corporation, the Washington and Old Dominion Railway.[21] In that year, they concluded negotiations with the Southern Railway to lease the Southern's Bluemont Branch and to take over all service on the branch on July 1, 1912.[22] The lease excluded the portion of the Southern's route that connected Potomac Yard with the former AL&H terminal in old town Alexandria.[22]

In 1912, the GF&OD became the "Great Falls Division" of the W&OD Railway, while the Southern's Bluemont Branch became a part of the W&OD Railway's "Bluemont Division".[23] The W&OD electrified all of its operations over the next four years, becoming an interurban electric trolley system that carried passengers, mail, milk and freight.[24]

From that time onward, W&OD trains crossed over Potomac Yard on a long trestle constructed earlier for the Southern Railway.[25] In contrast to the Southern Railway's earlier Bluemont Branch service, the W&OD Railway's Bluemont Division did not serve Washington's Union Station.[26]

To join its two lines, the W&OD Railway constructed in 1912 a double-tracked Bluemont Division connecting line that traveled between two new junctions in Arlington: Bluemont Junction on the Alexandria-Bluemont line and Thrifton Junction on the Georgetown-Great Falls line.[22][27] The connecting line passed through Lacey (near the west end of Ballston), crossing on a through girder bridge over a competing interurban electric trolley line, the Fairfax line of the Washington-Virginia Railway (see Northern Virginia trolleys).[28][29] The rival line carried passengers between Rosslyn, Clarendon, Ballston, Falls Church, Vienna and Fairfax City.[30]

The railway's electrification system distributed 650 volts direct current (DC) to its Bluemont Division cars and trains through overhead catenary lines.[31] Single overhead lines carried the Great Falls Division's electricity over its tracks.[32] Stationary and movable electrical substations containing Westinghouse alternating current (AC) to DC converters were located at various points along the railway's routes.[31][33]

The W&OD's main passenger line ran from Georgetown and Rosslyn through Thrifton Junction, Bluemont Junction and westward to Bluemont.[34] However, after crossing the Potomac River from Georgetown, many W&OD passengers transferred in Rosslyn to the trolleys of the competing Washington-Virginia Railway.[35] Most of the W&OD's freight trains ran between Potomac Yard, Bluemont Junction and either Rosslyn or various locations along the Bluemont Division.[34]

In 1923, the W&OD Railway ceased operating from Georgetown when the federal government replaced the aging Aqueduct Bridge with the new Francis Scott Key Bridge.[36] At the same time, the railroad constructed a new passenger station in Rosslyn which became its "Washington" terminal.[36]

The W&OD Railway fell upon hard times in the 1930s during the Great Depression.[37] In 1932, the railway went into bankruptcy and was placed in receivership.[38] The railway also discontinued passenger service between Bluemont Junction and Alexandria during 1932.[39]

In 1934, the railway abandoned operations on the Great Falls Division between Thrifton Junction and Great Falls. The abandoned railway route then became Old Dominion Drive (Virginia State Route 309).[36][40][41] In 1979, the old rail trestle of the Great Falls Division over Difficult Run was demolished after years of carrying automobile traffic on Old Dominion Drive.[42]

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Davis Elkins

In 1936, the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, a new corporation that Davis Elkins (the son of Stephen Benton Elkins) had created, assumed operation of the remnants of the W&OD Railway, which consisted only of the Railway's Bluemont Division and the portion of the former Great Falls Division that had remained between Rosslyn and Thrifton (which was no longer a junction).[43][44] Shortly thereafter, in 1939, the railroad abandoned the western end of its line, which had connected the towns of Purcellville and Bluemont.[43] In the same year, the signature station in Rosslyn was torn down to make way for a better entrance to the Key Bridge.[45]

In 1945, the W&OD Railroad acquired ownership of the section of line between Potomac Yard and Purcellville that the W&OD Railway had earlier leased from the Southern Railway.[46] The Southern Railway retained ownership of the easternmost section of the railroad's route, which still connected Potomac Yard to the Southern's freight and passenger stations in old town Alexandria.

During the 1940s, the W&OD Railroad converted all of its lines' operations from electric to diesel or gasoline power.[44][47] The railroad discontinued its electrified passenger service in 1941, but temporarily resumed passenger service during World War II using gas–electric motor cars, because all of the trolley wire had been removed and sold as scrap to support the war, and cars pulled by diesel–electric locomotives.[48] Passenger and mail service finally ended in 1951; thereafter, the railroad carried only freight.[49] The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) purchased the W&OD Railroad in 1956, but did not change the railroad's name.[50]

The 1960s were a decade of decline and closure for the W&OD. The Virginia highway department began negotiations to purchase the Rosslyn spur in 1960 and was trying to buy the mainline as early as 1962 for the construction of a road that was to become Interstate 66 (I-66).[51] In July 1962, the highway department bought the Rosslyn spur for $900,000. In September 1963, the railroad stopped operating to Rosslyn. The railroad removed its tracks between Lacey (south of Washington Boulevard) and Rosslyn by November 1964.[52][53]

In February 1965, the Commonwealth of Virginia contracted to buy 30.5 miles (49.1 km) of the mainline from Herndon to Alexandria for $3.5 million. The C&O Railway then petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) for permission to abandon the railroad's remnant. The purchase would eliminate the need to build a grade separation where the railroad crossed the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway (now part of Interstate 395 (I-395)) at grade and at another grade separation for I-66. The purchase would also provide 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of right-of-way for I-66, saving the state $5 million.[54]

Business interests in Loudoun County, the Arlington County Chamber of Commerce, various state, county and local officials, railway labor organizations and 21 of the 133 shippers who still used the railroad's freight service opposed the purchase. The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), which was interested in converting the line to a commuter rail service, also opposed the purchase.[54] The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which at the time was planning to construct a rapid transit system for the Washington area, tried to postpone the abandonment in the hopes of using part of the right-of-way for transit.[55]

The highway department simultaneously made plans to secretly sell all but 4 miles (6.4 km) of the route to the Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) (now Dominion Virginia Power), whose transmission lines were running along the railroad's right-of-way.[56] As a result, the highway department would sell to VEPCO the remaining 17.5 miles (28.2 km) of right-of-way, including the 12 miles (19.3 km) north of Herndon. The sale would thus prevent the NVTC from buying the land for mass transit.[57]

In August 1967, transit advocates led by Del. Clive L. DuVal II (Fairfax-Falls Church) and WMATA secured a 60-day postponement of the abandonment while they put together a plan to use the right-of-way for transit.[58] However, according to WMATA general manager Jackson Graham, the estimated cost of using the full right-of-way for commuter rail was $70 million. Because WMATA did not expect the proposed transit line to be able to generate enough ridership to be cost-effective, WMATA rejected that option.[59]

The former W&OD 55, a Whitcomb 75-ton diesel–electric switcher locomotive built in 1950, at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Riverside Yard in Baltimore in January 1969.[1]

On November 10, 1967, WMATA announced that it had come to an agreement with the highway department that would give WMATA a two–year option to buy a 5 miles (8.0 km) stretch of the right of way from Glebe Road (Virginia Route 120) to the Capital Beltway (now Interstate 495 (I-495)), where I-66 was to be built. WMATA would operate mass transit in the highway's median strip. WMATA would have a 2-year option to buy the 10 miles (16.1 km) of right-of-way from the Beltway to Herndon for the use of commuter trains, an option that WMATA did not exercise.[60] A last minute offer to buy the railroad at its salvage cost and keep it running that the railroad's customers made was rejected in 1967.[61]

In 1968, the ICC decided to permit the C&O to abandon and sell its line. After initially planning to run their last train on January 30, 1968, a temporary restraining order kept the line open until August 27, 1968.[62] On the last day, B&O switcher 9155 pulled two empty lumber cars to Potomac Yard from the Murphy and Ames Lumber Company siding in Falls Church.[63] On August 30, the railroad shipped its three diesel locomotives to the B&O's Baltimore engine terminal, from which a salvage dealer purchased them.[63] By 1969, the C&O had removed all of its tracks and ties, except for some tracks that were crossing paved roads. In 1974, the railroad's bridge over the Capital Beltway was demolished to enable the highway to be widened.[64]