Leesburg Freight Station
Leesburg’s first railroad depot opened here in 1860 to accommodate passengers, mail, express packages, and freight. All but the freight operations were moved west to King Street in 1887 when the new passenger station opened. An industrial area known as “the Wharf”—mills, warehouses, a farm implement factory, and a stockyard—grew up around this station.
Passenger service along the Washington & Old Dominion barely made money. Freight appeared to be the railroad’s salvation. In 1926 W&OD owners calculated that 2 or 3 freight runs earned more than 134 passenger runs.
Freight business boomed during World War II and later with the growth of Northern Virginia. Trains hauled stone from local quarries for road construction. In the late 1950s the railroad prospered hauling building materials for the new Dulles International Airport.
Marker is on Harrison Street, on the left when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
