Tag: Alexandria Loudon & Hampshire Railroad (AL&H)

Wikipedia says: 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. 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.

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.[ 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.

Because of its proximity to Washington, D.C., the line saw much use and disruption during the Civil War. After the war, the name of the line was changed in 1870 to the Washington and Ohio Railroad.