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Leonard Smith had made the survey of New Town (Jefferson) in 1774. He had surveyed Berlin on January 26, 1775. These experiences had inspired him .to buy the land that Hollyday subsequently deeded to him in 1780, and to begin planning his own town. In 1780 Smith proceeded almost immediately to lay out the first section of what was to become the town of Berlin.

By 1787 Smith laid out the town of Berlin in 96 lots, most of which were one-half acre in size. Perched on the sharply- rising foothills of the Catoctin range along the north shore of the Potomac River, it is located at the eastern base of a great gap formed by the wind and water as they cut through the Appalachian Mountain chain to form the Potomac River.

A "HEAVY FERRY"

By April 6, 1822, Jacob Waltman, Jr., had begun operating a "heavy" ferry between Berlin and Loudoun County broad enough to carry a wagon with two horses, plus a number of people, thus the title "heavy ferry."

Potomac River navigation, which intersected this route, included small craft and convoys of large flatbottom wooden rafts, carrying grain, flour, bacon, and whiskey among its cargo downstream, east to Georgetown. Berlin became a thriving port. (The Potomac River was deeper than it is today and had a greater flow.)

Berlin's growth was very slow until the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Chesape ake and Ohio Canal reached the small village in 1834.

Berlin was a tranquil area even after the railroad and canal passed through, parallel with and north of the river, in 1834. The railroad left at Berlin only a tool shed and a small section gang to care for the right-of-way at the time.¹

The original settlement was built on the lowland near the river. As the railroad tracks and yards developed, the town pushed up the rounded hills, and the building s between the tracks and the canal eventually disappeared by 1924.

Primarily a canal town until 1888, most of Berlin's building s sprang up in the area bordered by the present railroad tracks. Then the railroad began supplanting the water transportation system in young America. The boom town's explosion of growth came from 1890, when the town incorporated as Brunswick, to 1896, when the B&O yards were built; the population increased tenfold from 300 to over 3000 during that period.

As the railroad prospered, it displaced the town south of the westbound railroad tracks, and people and business es moved north of the tracks, and onto the three large and rolling hills: New York, Wenners, and Sandy Hook.

SEVERAL BRIDGES HAVE SPANNED THE RIVER

In 1859 a covered wooden toll bridge, the first bridge across the Potomac in this area was built at Berlin. It was burned by Confederate troops in 1861. Because it was a focal point, Berlin was used as a supply depot by the Union Army after the Battle of Antietam, September 17-19, 1862. A ferry was again relied on for crossing the river until 1893, when an iron truss bridge was erected by the Lovettsville and Brunswick Bridge Company.

Weakened by periodic floods, this bridge was replaced in 1955 by the present concrete bridge, which has thus far escaped damage from the ravages of the flooding Potomac.

In the 1950's the town remained stable in population. In the middle of that decade the steam locomotive was replaced by the diesel engine, which was capable of much longer trips than the former, and could pull longer and heavier trains. Brunswick's importance as a railroad town declined as the giant snakes of iron passed through the small town with hardly a glance, seeking Cumberland, Maryland, for refueling and repairs.

Brunswick temporarily regained some of its former importance when the Chessie System, which gained control of the B&O in 1962, invested millions in its Brunswick facilities. A shockwave hit Brunswick when CSX (the owner's next identity) closed the car repair yards in 1988 and left only a skeleton crew at the machine shop.

Today, Brunswick is predominantly a bedroom community. With the real estate development over the last 20 years, Brunswick's population, stable around 3700 for three quarters of a century, will probably be around the 5000-figure when the 1990 census is completed.

¹Titus Atlas (1873) clearly shows a "Tool House" beside the westbound track at the foot of Second Street (later Maryland Avenue) on the east side, across from the Gross Store. Could it have been in the same location 39 years earlier?

W - H. Austin Cooper

NAMES OF BRUNSWICK

"Brunswick" it is today, but this town has had an assortment of names over the years. Most of the

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