Fences surround the trail in places the B&O had regraded the land higher over the surrounding terrain. Often interesting things are to be found at such locations.

One such interesting thing is this culvert to handle overflow water from the adjacent C&O canal.

At Fletcher's Cove, the Abner Cloud house, which dates to 1689, is the oldest surviving building along the C&O canal. The photographer is standing on the canal's towpath while paralleling unseen on the immediate right is the Georgetown Branch's right-of-way.

In 1981 the Smithsonian Institution steamed from Georgetown to Fletcher's Cove via the 1831-constructed John Bull locomotive; the event was noted as the operation of the oldest self-propelled vehicle in the world.

Links: 1981, John Bull info at Wikipedia

Number 20 is painted on this 1909-constructed passageway under both the canal and railroad.

Link: plans

A sharp-eyed railfan can spot B&O artifacts all along the way, such as this track spike that has somehow found itself nailed into asphalt.

Other artifacts along this stretch include ties, tie plates, and rails.

By trail milepost 9 the B&O right-of-way has finally dipped to a lower elevation than the canal, which remains parallel on the left.

By this point, the B&O had to hug the DC shore of the Potomac River. The buildings in the distance on the Virginia shore are near the Key Bridge. Across on the right (inset) the stone arch belongs to the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

The B&O's concrete arched bridges have held up well... this one is more than a century old.

Links: plans, 1967 washout nearby

After autumn leaves fly, and a blast of cold hints of the winter ahead, blue is the color that dominates around the Francis Scott Key Bridge, DC's oldest surviving bridge spanning the Potomac River. The (in)famous Watergate Hotel can be glimpsed in the distance through the second arch from the left.

The boat gliding downstream is the Nina's Dandy, a dinner cruise ship.

Link: Nina's Dandy dinner cruises

Yes, at one time the tracks did squeeze between these boat houses on the right and possessed Georgetown children on the left.

Link: 1947 reverse view, 1976 Best Friend of Charleston

Prior to the Key Bridge, people relied on the Aqueduct Bridge to carry them across the Potomac. The structure dates to the 1830s originally as part of the C&O canal. So the Georgetown Branch could pass under the leftmost of the two surviving arches, landfill was added to push the shoreline outward, and the arch was rebuilt.

Links: 1967 reverse view, aqueduct pics and history

Initially I thought this Aqueduct Bridge arch was lined with impressively large slabs of granite, but now I believe they are concrete sections added when the arch was enlarged to allow clearance for the B&O's trains. The two photos linked below show the arch before and after modification. Beyond the bridge the Whitehurst Freeway looms overhead.

Links: ~1910, ~1970

The style of this building suggests a B&O heritage. Anyone know? Now it lives in the shadow of the Whitehurst Freeway that in 1949 was squeezed between the B&O's Georgetown Yards, and the Key Bridge.

Link: 1973

The B&O's planned link across the Potomac to the southern states never materialized, and Washington's industrial waterfront gradually gave way to less grimy purposes. The closure of the coal-fired power plant here presaged the future of the Georgetown Branch which would see its last train in 1985.

K Street (formerly known as Water Street) has undergone a transformation from the industrial to the hip. What the B&O called its "new" Georgetown Yards on the right remained fallow from the branch's abandonment until Georgetown Waterfront Park was added in 2007.

The Whitehurst Freeway struggles to keep standing while subject to a decades-long battle of aesthetics vs. function. Elevated roads are rarely pretty, but this one provides an important link around the crowded streets of Georgetown.

Link: 1966