Description

This booklet has now been updated and republished and is available for $10.

Now called the MARC Brunswick Line, the commuter train to Washington D.C. crossing Montgomery County has a colorful history going back to the Civil War. Many of its original rail stations, designed by renowned architect Francis Baldwin, still remain to enhance the view of stressed commuters riding the rails to work each day. Unseen by the riders, the engineering feats of the Waring Viaduct and the Monocacy Viaduct support the trains as they speed along the railroad track.

The rail line changed the face of the County, bringing it into the industrial age with steam powered mills and factories, coal yards and wood lots located next to the tracks. Farms changed from marketing wheat and corn to producing perishables such as milk and peaches. Railroad suburbs started sprouting upwards from the District line, and sleepy country towns turned into summer resorts.
Montgomery County was never the same after the railroad came.