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Altitude: m. ASL.
Region:
United States > West Virginia
Cache type: Traditional
Size: Small
Status:
Ready for Search
Date hidden: 2019-11-29
Date created: 2020-03-01
Date published: 2020-03-04
Last modification: 2020-03-16 
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Description
EN
The B&O Railroad reached Martinsburg in May of 1842 and Cumberland Md. by October of the same year. Since that time, innumerable trains have passed the site you will be standing at. One of Martinsburg's newest miniparks, this spot has quite a history tale to be told. Aside from the Confederate troops marching eastward past this site only to be accosted by a patriotic Yankee housewife, when standing at ground zero, you face a stone wall that replaced an older bridge supported on large round stone columns or colonnades. Stonewall Jackson destroyed the old bridge in 1861 and it was hastily replaced by a wooden trestle to keep the Union supply lines moving by rail. In the era around 1872, the trestle work was filled in after the present stone walls were erected. The old wooden trestle and possibly some of the old Colonnade bridge itself may still be lying among the fill inside these walls. If only they could talk.
This minipark was completed in the fall of 2019 when the old 1901 stone and brick arch bridge over the Tuscarora Creek was repaired and preserved for more heavy traffic (as long as it is no taller than 10 feet).
Please note there is NO NEED to go near the creek or the railroad tracks nearby. They are fenced off for your safety. The street is busy at times but there is plenty of off street parking here as to not need to venture onto the street. Please keep control of little ones.
If the future is kind, someday there may be a linear park along the creek that will run upstream behind the 1866 roundhouse complex and who knows how far westward perhaps even linking several more local parks.
Imagine and enjoy.
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