page_title: Washington and Old Dominion Railroad
section_title: Predecessors of the W&OD (1855–1911)
hierarchical_section_title: Washington and Old Dominion Railroad / History / Predecessors of the W&OD (1855–1911)
caption_attribution_description: English: Hon. Lewis McKenzie of Va.
context_page_description: The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, the successor to the bankrupt Washington and Old Dominion Railway, was an intrastate short-line railroad located in Northern Virginia. Its oldest line extended from Alexandria on the Potomac River northwest to Bluemont at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Snickers Gap, not far from the boundary line between Virginia and West Virginia. The railroad's route largely paralleled the routes of the Potomac River and the present Virginia State Route 7.
  The line followed the winding course of Four Mile Run upstream from Alexandria through Arlington to Falls Church. At that point, the railroad was above the Fall Line and was able to follow a more direct northwesterly course in Virginia through Dunn Loring, Vienna, Sunset Hills, Herndon, Sterling, Ashburn, Leesburg, Paeonian Springs, Hamilton, Purcellville and Round Hill to its terminus at Bluemont, turning sharply to the west only after passing through Clarke's Gap in Catoctin Mountain west of Leesburg. A branch connected the line to Rosslyn.
context_section_description: 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. First 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 old town Alexandria. 
  In 1860, the AL&H reached Leesburg in Loudoun County, with plans to extend the line through Hillsborough, Vestal's Gap, Berryville, Winchester and Romney before terminating 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. After changing its planned route to enable it to cross the Blue Ridge through Snickers Gap rather than through the more northerly Vestal's Gap, the railroad extended its line from Leesburg to Hamilton in 1870 and to Round Hill in 1874.
  Upon acquisition by new owners in the 1880s, the line's name was changed twice: first to the Washington and Western Railroad in 1882 and in the next year to the Washington, Ohio and Western (WO&W) Railroad. However, the line did not serve Washington, Ohio, or the West.
  In 1886, the Richmond and Danville Railroad, whose trunk line travelled between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta with connections to New York City, New Orleans, Mississippi and Florida, leased the WO&W. The Richmond and Danville also acquired a branch that paralleled the WO&W while traveling between Manassas and Strasburg, Virginia, where it connected to railroads in the Shenandoah Valley west of the Blue Ridge that the WO&W did not reach (see: Manassas Gap Railroad). In 1888, the Richmond and Danville began to operate the WO&W's trains between Washington, D.C., and Round Hill.
  In 1894, the newly formed Southern Railway absorbed the Richmond and Danville Railroad and acquired the WO&W. In 1900, the Southern Railway extended the line westward for four miles from Round Hill to Bluemont (formerly Snickersville). The Southern Railway designated the line as its Bluemont Branch.
  By 1908, steam locomotives were hauling Southern Railway passenger trains from the new Union Station in Washington, D.C., to Alexandria Junction (north of old town Alexandria), where they switched to travel westward on the Bluemont Branch. Connecting trains shuttled passengers between Alexandria Junction and the former AL&H terminal in old town Alexandria. On weekends, express trains carried vacationers from Washington to Bluemont and other towns in western Loudoun County in which resorts had developed.
  Meanwhile, in 1906, electric trolleys had begun to run on the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad (GF&OD) northwest to Great Falls from Georgetown in Washington, D.C. This line, which John Roll McLean and Stephen Benton Elkins owned at the time, crossed the Potomac River on the old Aqueduct Bridge, passed through Rosslyn, and traveled northwest on a double-tracked line through Arlington and Fairfax County to an amusement park (trolley park) that the railroad company constructed and operated near the falls.
caption: Library of Congress
  Lewis McKenzie, between 1860 and 1875
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