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Point of Rocks B&O Railroad Station

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The Point of Rocks B&O station is an important junction station between two mainlines of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The station is triangular in shape and has ornate decorations, and is one of the best examples of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture. The station was completed in 1876 by B&O Railroad architect E Francis Baldwin, and with the impressive steeple, parts of the station are four storeys tall. It has been described as the most photographed railroad station of all time. Today, it is served by MARC commuter trains on the Penn Line, and Amtraks Capitol Limited train pass through here, as well as CSX cargo trains. The station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Images

A Baltimore and Ohio RR train passing through in March 1969

Sky, Train, Snow, Vehicle

Amtrak Capitol Limited train passing through Point of Rocks in November 2011

Cloud, Sky, Window, Building

View of the station facing East.

Building, Black, Sky, Line

Decorations on the Gothic Victorian building

Sky, Window, Building, Black

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company was founded in 1827 in order to make Baltimore a more economically competitive city, after New York had rapidly expanded in Westerly trade with the Erie Canal. The Baltimore and Ohio's first track of railway ran from Baltimore to Ellicott City in 1830 with Peter Coopers Tom Thumb locomotive. In 1852, the line was extended to Wheeling, West Virginia. This line, which was extended further westward, became known as the B&O mainline.

The B&O mainline originally had no service to Washington, D.C., however, in 1937, a branch line called the Washington Branch opened from Relay Station on the mainline terminating at Washington. In the 1870s, after the Civil War and the expansion of the federal government, the B&O decided to link up Washington with the rest of the B&O mainline and created the Metropolitan Branch.

The Metropolitan Branch split off from the mainline at the newly constructed Point of Rocks, which was named due to the rock formation on which the town sits. After many years of service with the B&O, the station closed in 1962, and today is used as a CSX maintenance office, with passengers not allowed inside.

Sources

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Encyclopedia Britannica. August 24th 2018. Accessed April 3th 2021. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baltimore-and-Ohio-Railroad.

Point of Rocks Station/Depot, American Rails. Accessed April 3rd 2021. https://www.american-rails.com/rck.html.

Rowlands, DW. How the Metropolitan Branch and the Brunswick Line shaped the region’s suburbs, Greater Greater Washington. August 23rd 2018. Accessed April 3rd 2021. https://ggwash.org/view/68755/how-the-metropolitan-branch-and-the-brunswick-line-shaped-the-regions-suburbs

Image Sources(Click to expand)

1. American-rails.com

2. American-rails.com

3. Historic American Buildings Survey

4. Historic American Buildings Survey

Additional Information