The Railroad Era

The Railroad Era. . , The railroad played an important role in the growth of Ocean City, Maryland. The railroad era begain in 1876 and lasted for 57 years. it was the priamry form of transportation to and from the resort, and was the lifeblood of early Ocean City. Both passenger and freight trains served the ocean resort. , The train also made possible the success of the pounding fish industry. Without the train it would have been impossible to profitably move the freshly caught fish to markets in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. The destruction of the railroad bridge in the 1933 hurricane hastened the demise of the local pound fishing industry. , The first railroad to bring passengers into Ocean City was the Wicomico and Pocomoke. Its tracks had been extended from Salisbury to Berlin in 1868 into the mainland side of the Sinepuxent Bay at the time (1875) that the Atlantic Hotel was under construction. A low wooden trestle bridge with a center pivot section was built in 1876 and entered Ocean City at South Division Street. , Railroad excursions were popular in the early 1900s and reached their peak in the world war one era when hundreds of passengers as far away as Baltimore would "day trip" to the beach. These excursions brought thousands of people to Ocean City each summer and provided additional income to the Boardwalk merchants of that time. It is likely that most of these visitors would never have seen Ocean City had it not been for the railroad. , The railroad era ended abruptly on August 23, 1933 when a hurricane destroyed the railroad bridge, the pound fishing camps, and the tracks leading to the camps. Neither the bridge nor the tracks were ever repaired.