Martinsburg Roundhouse and Shops
by Susan Rissi Tregoning
Title
Martinsburg Roundhouse and Shops
Artist
Susan Rissi Tregoning
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The B&O Railroad reached Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1842, and built a major shop complex there. Stonewall Jackson's troops burned those shops during the Civil War.
When the new shop complex was constructed in 1866, the roundhouse was added. These buildings were considered masterpieces in railroad architecture and structural engineering, but the brick roundhouse was especially significant. Designed by Albert Fink, a renowned 19th-century civil engineer and railroad economist, this completely circular, domed structure is supported by a cast-iron internal framework that would be considered an early ancestor to the steel framing system used in today's skyscrapers. This iron skeleton allows for more than 20,000 square feet of open floor space. That is enough room for a central 50-foot turntable and 16 locomotive bays. Abandoned by CSX Railroad in the late 1980s, it sat empty for many years; then the complex was sold to a non-profit and restored.
This roundhouse is the oldest remaining domed roundhouse in the United States and possibly the world, it is a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The B&O Railroad Martinsburg Shops and Roundhouse are also on the National Historic Landmark register.
A significant piece of American history took place here, the great railroad strike of 1877, one of the most violent and widespread labor uprisings in American history started here in the Martinsburg B&O Shops. The strike went on for days, and strikers were killed when federal troops broke up the action this initiated the first national labor strike.
Copyright 2020 Susan Rissi Tregoning
Uploaded
August 29th, 2020
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