Annapolis Junction

Shortly after the Washington Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was completed in 1835, a plan was put into action to link the railroad with the Maryland capital of Annapolis.

The Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad Company was chartered in the spring of 1837, and the business of fundraising and selecting a route would soon begin. George W. Hughes served as Chief Engineer, and the new railroad was set up in three divisions, beginning at the Washington Branch near Savage—what would become known as Annapolis Junction. The line opened in December of 1840, creating a direct connection between Annapolis and the main B&O corridor.

At first, Annapolis Junction was simply a depot—a place where supplies and passengers from Annapolis and stations in between arrived and transferred to trains heading north toward Baltimore or south toward Washington, D.C. That much is straightforward.

But its location made it more than that.

Positioned between two major cities and tied directly into the primary transportation artery of the region, the Junction quickly became a place where movement converged—people, goods, and eventually information. Within a relatively short period of time, it became associated with developments that were far larger than the place itself.

Those include:

• Early telegraph operations along the B&O right-of-way (1844)

• The movement of Union troops at the outset of the Civil War (1861)

• The development of a small but active railroad community with hotels and a post office and more

Most of this is not marked on the landscape today. There are no prominent signs identifying where these things occurred, and no preserved structures tied directly to the earliest period of activity. But the documentation exists—in railroad reports, land records, census returns, and later accounts.