In 1873, the B&O marked its arrival in Silver Spring with laying of tracks across Brookeville Road, later Brookeville Turnpike and now Georgia Avenue (MD 97). This area would remain sleepy and bucolic for a half century until in 1922 the Woodside Development Corporation purchased Alton Farm and divided it into 1-acre residential sites. That initiated almost non-stop development and re-development that transformed Silver Spring into a bustling economic, business and transportation hub.

In his Impossible Challenge books, Herb Harwood included a jaw-dropping set of then-now photos comparing these tracks in 1920 when they made a grade crossing versus a modern view. One photo from IC2 looks toward the Silver Spring station as does the photo above. Two other 1920 photos in the original Impossible Challenge book view north and south along Georgia Avenue, at that time a dirt road. Those old scenes are similar to ones today further from DC such as that illustrated at left, snapped at Hoods Mill along the B&O Old Main Line in 2001. Hoods Mill happens to be adjacent to this same MD 97, some 25 miles north of Silver Spring.

With development came more people, as well as more of that then-recent invention known as the automobile. Two years of grading crossing elimination effort brought the first bridge to this location in 1926. Operation of Georgia Avenue's Forest Glen trolley had been halted by bridge construction, and was slated to resume under the east side (left) but never did.

Growth was such that within 20 years this bridge proved a bottleneck for Georgia Avenue traffic...

...so around 1947 work began on a new, longer bridge. Behind a B&O train clatters over the old one to give passengers a glimpse of the future.

Passengers saw views like this captured by photographer Ira W. Pearlman.

Longtime DC area residents may recall Gifford's Ice Cream. Gifford's first shop opened in 1938 in the brightly painted building with awnings seen right of center.

When the new bridge opened in 1948, the original was quickly torn down.

In this view back to DC, the source of some of the new automobiles, a Sid Wellborn Chrysler Plymouth dealership, is on the right.

The old, original bridge has been dismantled and its new, longer replacement is open for business. Georgia Avenue, though, needs finishing touches as a B&O steamer surveys from above.

The locals called the new bridge underpass "The Tunnel" possibly because of the style of adjacent pedestrian passageways. Perpendicular to the passageways is a pedestrian walkway spanning the bridge on its north side, lit by lampposts still in service today.

At upper left is Silver Spring's second B&O station, then only a few years old.

Though the 1948 bridge was longer, less than 30 years later it was not wide enough for the arrival of the DC Metro. So, in the mid-1970s a separate but similarly-styled bridge was added on the south side, basically at the location spanned by the 1926 original. This effectively doubled the width creating room for not only two B&O tracks but also two Metro Red Line tracks.

2006's colorful Silver Pass mosaic by G. Byron Peck decorates a bridge wall.

Saved from demolition after a wayward automobile had damaged the structure, during the 2000s Montgomery Preservation restored B&O's 1945 Silver Spring station into a combination museum and community center. This is the only building in downtown Silver Spring to be listed within the National Register of Historic Places.

Nevertheless, this is not the original B&O station at this spot...

Link: Montgomery Preservation

Since I found online no decent photos of the B&O's original Silver Spring station, here the Rockville station at age 105 stands in. The two Baldwin-designed stations were virtually identical, though the layout was mirrored. Silver Spring deemed its 1878 version too archaic for the town's post-WWII hip suburban image, so the structure made way in 1945 for one of Colonial Revival style built on the same foundation.

The interior has been restored to its appearance in B&O days, plus a Brio train set.

The site was looking a bit worn in its final days as a commuter station in year 2000.

A small rail yard was located on the north side of the station (left). In the past a spur emerged from the yard and crossed Georgia Avenue to serve the Griffith and Perry grain storage facility.

In what's left of the rail yard, a pair of B&O color position light signals rest awaiting restorative installation as museum pieces. I'm told CSX donated these after they were replaced at Kensington, a few miles west of here.

Plans put the Metropolitan Branch Trail through this area, but funding and other issues have been problematic.

Link: Met rail-trail tribulations

Across the tracks from the main station (roof in view) the B&O erected a waiting room for eastbound passengers. Expansion for Metro in the mid-1970s pushed the building away from its sibling across the tracks. Soon after this photo the structure was demolished to make room for more office buildings and parking decks. A passenger walkway under the tracks survives, but is now fenced off.

Decades ago in what now seems like another life, the top floor of the distant building at left was home to my offices. Though I had a great view of train activity, I snapped no photos because back then I had not yet taken up studying B&O history.

The waiting room's interior provides an example of the pale green that was popular during the mid-20th century.

Outside the waiting room, MARC 62 is about to transport commuters over the old passenger walkway. MARC 62 is an Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) model GP40WH-2; EMD is now a subsidiary of Caterpillar, Inc.

The closure of the B&O's Silver Spring station prompted MARC to open a new station about 1000 feet west.

Much more is to come: under construction on the right is the Paul Sarbanes Transit Center, a oft-delayed multilevel, multimodal facility incorporating Metrobus, Ride On, Metrorail, MARC train, intercity Greyhound bus, and local taxi services under one roof. Metro's Purple line is planned to connect to its Red line here.

Link: Transit Center computer rendering

The MARC (right) and Metro (left) platforms overlap. Though there is also some overlap in service between the two, MARC extends far beyond the DC Metro: passengers from MARC stations such as the one at Martinsburg, West Virginia can commute directly to and from offices at Silver Spring.

Link: Silver Spring Metro stop photos

The Silver Spring stop, Metro's busiest station in Maryland, sits above Colesville Road, aka US 29.

Penguin Rush Hour, a 100 foot-long mural painted by Sally Callmer, previously graced a wall under the station but was removed in 2005 for eventual restoration at the Paul Sarbanes Transit Center.

As we head away from Silver Spring, here's one last look back from milepost 8.

Between the Spring and 16th Street overpasses, Metro bears down to scoot under the railroad. Unseen beyond this east leg of Metro's Red Line tunnels and turns to the north (right) to follow below Georgia Avenue. Several miles from here the B&O will meet the west leg of the Red Line.

Silver Spring served as a Metro Red Line terminal from 1978 until 1990 when this extension segment opened to Wheaton. Had plans from the 1960s been fully implemented, the I-70S North Central Freeway would have also weaved along the B&O's route.

Link: North Central Freeway

A pair of uncommon 8-lamp CPLs watch CSX 7730 and CSX 8779 haul autoracks west at 16th Street where the speed limit jumps to 70 mph.

Overheard at an old but freshly repainted Georgetown Junction control box:

  Foamer Caine: "Strange treasures. How shall I hold them and keep them? Memory?"
  Yardmaster Po: "No, Grasshopper, not in memory, but in your deeds."

Speaking of strange treasures, I've never seen one of these before, anyone know what it is?

Culverts are fewer along the Met than the Old Main Line. This one is small but big enough to walk through, so perhaps it should be called a bridge.

Inside, the original 1870s construction is revealed as less exacting than found along the Old Main Line, the interior arch lacking precisely cut granite, perhaps due to the small overall size. As seen here near the entrance, a concrete exterior/extension was added subsequently.

The interior is dark because the culvert's northeast end is enclosed where its tiny stream is sequestered by a parking lot added above.

This is not the first train the rickety-but-charming single-lane Talbot Avenue bridge has seen. The automobile bridge is a repurposed railroad turntable (!) the B&O hauled from Martinsburg, WV and installed here in 1918 when limited resources made recycling the norm. The bridge may not survive Metro's Purple Line construction, so don't delay if you want to see it in person.

Long gone is a B&O Section House that stood at left behind the photographer; it can be seen in the 1948 photo linked below.

The tracks beyond on the left are what remains of the now-disused Georgetown Branch, which has its own photo tour.

Links: 1948, E.L. "Tommy" Thompson photo set, bridge preservation debate, 2008 photos