Detour to Bowie

Maryland, July 25, 2010: We headed out the Baltimore Washington Parkway on our way to Montpelier Mansion near Laurel, but just after the Capital Beltway, the parkway became a parking lot. So we bailed out into territory incognito and wandered into downtown Bowie, where we came upon its railroad museum.

Before the Civil War, the Maryland legislature gave a charter to William Duckett Bowie to build a railroad from Baltimore into Southern Maryland. Construction stalled during the war. After the war, Duckett cut a deal with the Pennsylvania Railroad which had been excluded by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from serving Washington DC. Bowie's charter gave him the right to build a spur and that "spur" became the mainline for the Pennsylvania Railroad to reach Washington DC. It remains the mainline today for Amtrak trains between DC, New York and beyond. Bowie was the railroad town that grew up at the spur.
As we were among the few out and about on this extremely hot and humid day, a guy from the museum came out and gave us a private tour:













The railroad museum in the depot was small, but quite good.

We had a bite to eat at the Grill and then wandered through some antique shops.