Bridging Gwynns Falls

The lofty, triple-arched Baltimore Street Bridge was built here in 1932 to provide better access across the Gwynns Falls Valley to the city's rapidly developing west side. Earlier, the Frederick Turnpike crossed farther south on a relatively short, low bridge at the narrowest point along the stream. After the National Road was built over the Appalachian Mountains, the Frederick Turnpike became part of this road and Baltimore's principal route to new markets in the Ohio Valley.<br><br> For many years, however, the railroads proved to be more efficient than highways and canals. The Baltimore & Potomac Railroad first crossed the valley in the 1870s. The Western Maryland Railroad built a track through the valley in the early 1900s to connect its new port facilities at Locust Point to its main line, which extended from northwest Baltimore to the coalfields of and West Virginia.