The Metropolitan Branch of the B & O Railroad celebrates its 150th Anniversary in 2023 .
Civil War finally put an end to the Metropolitan Railroad Company and the charter was not renewed .
After the Civil War the B & O Railroad changed its view toward constructing a railroad west from Washington . This was the boom time for building railroads and the old B & O main line could not handle the increased traffic . This new line west from Washington would bypass the old line and add the growing markets of the capital city . So , in 1866 B & O Railroad President John W . Garrett acquired the charter of the defunct company , devised a new route that would go directly from “ Washington City ” to connect with the main line at Point of Rocks and named it the Metropolitan Branch of the B & O Railroad .
Construction was allotted to several different contractors by bid , the first going to James A . Boyd who set up a camp where the town of Boyds now stands . Construction began near Barnesville in 1866 , but because of political and property
owner resistance , the section inside Washington D . C . did not receive governmental approval until October 1868 . The first passenger service from Washington to Rockville took place on September 11 , 1872 to coincide with the opening of the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair .
The last rail was laid in Gaithersburg in February of 1873 , and full service began on the Metropolitan Branch of the B & O Railroad three months later . The 42.5-milelong line from Washington , D . C . to Point of Rocks originally had nine stops referred to in the schedule as : Queenstown , Terra Cotta , Silver Spring , Knowles , Rockville , Gaithersburg , Germantown , Boyd ’ s , Barnesville , and Tuscarora . Six trains ran each way , three local and three express . The total cost of the railroad line was $ 3.5 million , and it soon proved its worth .
The B & O Railroad company created the Metropolitan Branch to move goods and passengers west from Baltimore and Washington .
Yet it had no idea what the real impact would be on the County that it crossed . And impact it did , changing the face of Montgomery County forever .
Down-county , real estate investors were snapping up land along the railroad at a fast pace , laying out suburban villages of summer homes and often permanent homes for city dwellers wanting to get away from the sweltering heat , air pollution and diseases prevalent near the Potomac River . By 1893 new stops along the line between the District line and Rockville included Takoma Park , Woodside , Linden , Forest Glen , Capitol View , Kensington ( formerly Knowles ), Garrett Park ( named for the president of the B & O Railroad ), Randolph ( named for the chief engineer of the Metropolitan Branch ); and Halpine . The Methodist Church wasted little time in purchasing about 260 acres of land just south of Gaithersburg for a summer “ Camp Meeting ” called Washington Grove .
Commerce was given a shot in the arm as all kinds of merchandise stores sprang up around each station . Industry at last made headway into the County with steampowered grist mills and factories that were built next to the tracks to provide easy shipment of goods . Coal yards and lumber yards , also next to the tracks , provided fuel and construction material for the new enterprises . Employment boomed as people rushed in to fill the construction and service jobs . The commercial centers of Gaithersburg and Germantown moved to be next to the railroad .
For the first time the upper county became accessible to Washington city dwellers for weekends in
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