Cumberland as a Transportation Nexus
1828 was an historic year for transportation in America. It was in this year that both the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal began building westward from the seaboard to the Ohio River. The geography dictated an intermediate goal of Cumberland, Maryland. The B&O reached Cumberland in 1842. The Canal came to town in 1850.
In the early 19th century, the Western Maryland region had vast natural resources of agricultural materials, coal, iron, fire clay, and wood. The problem was, there was no practical way to get these materials to the markets along the seaboard. This situation was recognized by a surveyor in the employ of Lord Fairfax, George Washington. He not only went on to become President, but worked on improvements to navigation on the Potomac River. However, the first transportation project that touched the western part of the state was the National (or, Cumberland) Road, begun under President Jefferson. This followed the Indian trails, and parts of Braddock's military road. However, its capacity for handling heavy freight traffic was limited by the grades and the road conditions.
In 1828, and through the 1830's, passengers walked, road horses, or took the various stage lines over the National Road. Freight moved by heavy wagon, or down the Potomac in flat bottom boats at limited times of the year. There was no practical way to return the boats upriver; rather they were sold for their wood in Georgetown and Alexandria. When the B&O started building the railroad, it was not at all clear what was the best motive power -- horses or steam engines. This would be decided later in favor of the steam engine at the Rainhill Trials, in England in the Fall of 1829.
In the late 1820's, Allegany County represented the unlimited frontier, and the canal and the railroad were coming. This point was not lost on the early entrepreneurs of the region. Both railroad and canal would pass through the town on their way west, and both would provide an avenue for transportation of goods -- and to make a profit, if not a fortune.
The earliest railroads in Allegany County were constructed by the coal mining and iron producing companies. They were built of necessity to move products to market. From the extraction or production site to the railhead or the canal terminus, the railroads were the Eckhart, built in 1846 by the Maryland Mining Company, the Georges Creek, built in 1853 by the Georges Creek Coal & Iron Co., and the Mt. Savage Rail Road, built by the Mt. Savage Coal & Iron Co. in 1845.
The Eckhart Railroad went from the Eckhart mines east of Frostburg, to the B&O railroad at Cumberland. Later, the Potomac Wharf Branch allowed access to riverboats and canal boats. The Mount Savage Rail Road was seen as a connection between the manufacturing facilities at Mt. Savage, and the B&O railroad at Cumberland. The focus was finished iron goods such as rail, and firebrick. Coal was of some minimal importance, and a branch served wharves in Will's Creek and the Potomac.
The rail section from Eckhart to Will's Creek was completed in 1846 by the Maryland Mining Company. It was extended as the Potomac Wharf Branch. This line was used to carry coal to flat bottom Potomac River boats at the Lynn Wharf in Cumberland, and to canal boats, before the canal wharf facility was completed.
Christian Detmold, the operator of the Iron Furnace in Lonaconing was responsible for the construction of an early tram road in 1847 from Lonaconing to Clarysville, to connect with the Eckhart Railroad. This was an attempt to provide transportation for iron goods from Lonaconing. The tram road was horse powered, and used wagons on wooden rails, covered with strap iron. The Georges Creek Railroad connected Lonaconing with the B&O railhead at Piedmont, which was also a target for the extended C&O canal. Originally intended to transport finished iron from the furnace at Lonaconing, the line quickly switched over to being a coal carrier, from the Big Vein formation along the Georges Creek.
The Maryland & New York Iron & Coal Co.'s Mt. Savage Railroad had been in operation from Mt. Savage to Cumberland since 1845. Much of the initial rolling stock & motive power was provided by the B&O. Ross Winans of Baltimore and other builders provided equipment to the mining railroads. Rail for the Mount Savage Rail Road was produced locally at Mt. Savage, breaking the English monopoly on rail manufacturing.
In 1850, the year the Cumberland & Pennsylvania (C&P) Railroad was chartered, the Georges Creek Coal & Iron Co. furnace at Lonaconing was in intermittent service, and the blast furnaces built by the Maryland & New York Company in Mt. Savage were in full operation. The first iron rail had been rolled in 1844, but the company had failed in 1848. The company was quickly picked up at sheriff's sale. Also in 1850, the canal reached Cumberland. That year, there were three short line railroads operating in Allegany County, and all were destined to become absorbed into the C&P. That year also happened to be when California entered the Union as a state.
The B&O reached Piedmont, Virginia (now, West Virginia) in July 1851. The Georges Creek Coal & Iron company built their line from Piedmont to Lonaconing in 1852. That line was acquired in 1863 by the C&P. The shops and engine house at Lonaconing were used until 1867.
Westernport and Piedmont, separated by the Potomac River, became a logical target for connection of the Georges Creek region with other railroads or the canal. One of the two proposed paths for the canal westward from Cumberland to the Ohio River would have passed through Westernport. Unfortunately, the Canal Company ran out of money, and stopped at Cumberland.
All of the original lines were now absorbed into the C&P, and if you wanted to move coal, you dealt with them. Of course, C&P was owned by Consolidation Coal Company. Other mining companies had trouble with this monopoly. Several alternatives were discussed, including connection with lines other than the B&O, and construction of competitors to the C&P.
For the early dream of tapping into the canal and the B&O railroad, the early mining railroads of Allegany County were transformed into a transportation infrastructure, serving the extractive industries and the traveling public as well. Some of those rail lines are still in use today.
