| Destination: Ohio RiverThe B&O’s Expansion West
By Kenneth L. Carvell and Lucille Grimm
Logo courtesy of the West Virginia Humanities Council
In the 1840s, many people said that a railroad could never be extended over the Appalachian Mountains. Grades were too steep to allow for the traction needed by rod-driven locomotives. Many thought the grades would be too arduous for engines alone, never mind for locomotives pulling cars loaded with passengers and freight.
But officials at the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad were determined to build their tracks across the mountains and all the way to the banks of the Ohio River. Their plans took time. Indeed, finding a practical route for the railroad presented such a formidable obstacle that the western terminus of the B&O stood at Cumberland, Maryland, from 1842 until 1846.
While mountain slopes and river valleys were a challenge to navigate, there were political entanglements too. Neither Pennsylvania nor Virginia was willing to grant permission for an out-of-state railroad to cross their territory. Both states hoped that their own railroads would form companies that would push rail lines to the west and establish an eastern terminus in their states, not in Baltimore.
But when Pennsylvania chartered the Connellsville Railroad, the Virginia Legislature suddenly granted permission to the B&O to cross western Virginia. Permission was granted with the stipulation that the tracks pass near the mouth of Three Fork Creek at the Tygart Valley River, near the present site of Grafton. The illustrious legislator from Marion County, Thomas Haymond, had added this provision to the bill at the last minute to assure that his home county would share the profits from the railroad route.
Though a railway through Virginia was now legally viable, there were still financial obstacles to overcome. The B&O was financially sound, but the cost of extending the railroad over the mountains seemed prohibitive. Yet chief engineer B. H. Latrobe and other railroad officials were up to the challenge. They knew that full completion of the railroad would take time and resources. Their initial plans called for passengers and freight to be transported across the Ohio River on the new Wheeling Suspension Bridge.
 By 1849, rails were extended to Piedmont and up the steep Allegheny Front to the high tablelands, where they crested the summit at the town of Altamont. At 2,632 feet above sea level, Altamont was the high point on the B&O system. Rails were then quickly extended across the flat tableland country of present-day Garrett County, Maryland, through Oakland, Maryland, to western Virginia at Corinth, and from there to Cranberry Summit, or present-day Terra Alta. At Terra Alta a new and greater problem loomed: how and where to descend to the valley of the Cheat and then climb again to high ground on the far side of the valley.
Construction of the railroad in this territory required thousands of workers laboring with picks, shovels, horses, and explosives. Fortunately for the B&O, the Irish potato famine (1845-1847) resulted in readily available immigrant labor. From Cork, Connaughton, and the shores of Killarney in County Kerry came thousands of capable laborers, all eager to work. They arrived over the Northeastern Turnpike or by the Monongahela River, many asking directions to "the big toonel."
From the high ground at Terra Alta, B&O engineers finally chose a route down Saltlick Creek that sloped gently enough to permit eastbound trains, with the help of numerous pusher engines, to negotiate the 11-mile grade. This stretch contained two short tunnels, the Rodamer and the Amblersburg. Both were removed a century later.
Next, a long, iron bridge, sheltered by a wooden roof, was built over the Cheat River at the town of Rowlesburg. This small settlement had been a logging and sawmill center and continued as a lumber town for many decades after the railroad arrived.
From here the tracks had to cling closely to the extremely steep west side of the Cheat Canyon, gaining elevation at 100 feet per mile as they headed northward. To shore up these tracks and stabilize the slipping soil, Irish workers laid hundreds of feet of cut-stone walls below the tracks. The longest of these is the Buckhorn wall.
In addition, they constructed graceful cut-stone archways over the gorges and ravines. The most spectacular and best known of these, an engineering wonder of its time, is the 500-foot Tray Run Viaduct, a four-arch structure crossing a great indentation caused by Tray Run. This viaduct was so highly esteemed that it was selected as one of the features for the reverse side of the West Virginia State Seal. To clearly identify this viaduct as a railroad bridge, the seal’s artist, Joseph H. Diss Debar, painted a train on top.
Leaving Cheat Valley through a low place on the river hill, the railroad turned west. The final feat in this series of structures was the Kingwood Tunnel at Tunnelton. This 4,138-foot-long tunnel was the longest in America at the time of its completion. It took three years to complete and required the work of 3,500 men and 700 horses. Since the tracks beyond the tunnel and those from Fairmont to Wheeling were already being laid, a series of temporary switchbacks was constructed over Tunnel Hill. This setup allowed trains, broken into short sections, to be taken over the steep hill. This tedious process was required until the tunnel was completed.
 On the day that the first train carrying passengers and cargo was to arrive in Rowlesburg, many local people stood waiting to hear the whistle and see the train coming down the steep track. Most did not believe that a locomotive pulling a payload of passengers and freight could actually negotiate the steep grades. There were cheers when they heard the first whistle!
During the building of the trackage from Tunnelton to Newburg and Fairmont, minor wars broke out among different factions of Irishmen, primarily the Corkers and Connaughters against those from Kerry. Their differences were based on home-country feuds and rivalries. After one of these skirmishes, 85 Irishmen were detained briefly in the Fairmont jail.
Tracks were completed to Wheeling on December 24, 1852, and on January 1, 1853, there was a great celebration. The governors of both Virginia and Maryland attended, as did members of both state legislatures. B&O President Thomas Swann and chief engineer Latrobe were lauded. Steam whistles on locomotives and river steamers punctuated the festivities. Soon after, the branch railroad line from Grafton to Parkersburg was opened, and rural western Virginia was opened up to modern conveniences and immigration.
When the Civil War started in 1861, the control and safety of the B&O Railroad became essential to the Union. Throughout the conflict this line carried men, supplies, weapons, and food from the Midwest and Lake States for the Union army. For much of the war, areas of Virginia south of the railroad were invaded by Confederate troops bent on disrupting this essential artery. Viaducts, bridges, and tunnels were primary targets. The 6th and 14th West Virginia Infantry regiments guarded the railroad. Two of the most vulnerable bridges that they protected were the bridge at Rowlesburg and the one at Fairmont, since their destruction would have put the railroad out of operation for many months.
Although the Rowlesburg bridge was never destroyed, a valiant attempt was made in late April 1863, during the Jones-Imboden Raid. Confederate General William "Grumble" Jones’s troops dashed through Greenland Gap, hoping to make a surprise raid on the Rowlesburg bridge, but they were unexpectedly delayed for eight hours by Union troops in the narrow center of the Gap. Union officers immediately sent messengers north to Rowlesburg to alert the guard to prepare for a Confederate raid.
Major John H. Showalter strengthened the crews manning the artillery on Cannon Hill, which overlooked the railroad bridge 660 feet below. Confederate troops came over Laurel Hill toward Rowlesburg, but the artillery barrage was so fierce that they abandoned their mission. Their captain was reputed to say, "The place is lousy with soldiers, we must retreat." During this event, many townspeople had forded the Cheat River to places of safety near Manheim.
In 1907, the rail line from Morgantown to Kingwood and Rowlesburg was completed. A large maintenance shop was built at what is still known as M&K Junction. M&K passenger service ceased after 1937. However, coal and lumber continued to arrive at M&K Junction until 2005. The B&O’s large, brick building is still used today. Several engines are usually waiting at the junction to help push or pull eastbound trains up the steep grade to Terra Alta. In the steam era, as many as eight engines might have been added for this steep ascent. Occasionally, long trains were split into two sections to be brought up individually and then rejoined.
In 1962, because of mounting debt, the B&O accepted merger overtures from the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad. The merger was not completed until 1973. The Chessie System was created at that time, and today the B&O is part of the CSX Transportation system. Though the B&O name no longer boldly plies the rails through West Virginia mountains and river valleys, its legacy lives on in the remarkable history and structures it left behind.
For more history of the B&O in West Virginia, visit the Web site: www.wvrail.railfan.net.
A longtime and popular contributor to Wonderful West Virginia, historian and retired West Virginia University professor Dr. Kenneth L. Carvell writes from his home in Morgantown.
Lucille Grimm boasts a family of railroaders— her father, husband, and two sons. The curator of the Rowlesburg Historical Society.
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