After seeing Strasburg, VA, we headed to Winchester, VA. The Winchester and Potomac Railroad (W&P) was a railroad in the southern United States, which ran from Winchester, Virginia to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, on the Potomac River, at a junction with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). It played a key role in early train raids of the B&O during the beginning months of the American Civil War. The W&P Railroad was acquired by the B&O in 1902, and subsequently became part of CSX Transportation. Most railroads built in Virginia before the Civil War connected farming and industrial centers to ports such as Alexandria and Norfolk. Towns west of the Blue Ridge Mountains needed rail transportation to connect with port cities but were hampered by the ability to cross the rugged Blue Ridge. When the newly formed B&O Railroad, est. 1827, was planned to cut across the northern end of the lower Shenandoah Valley, the Virginia General Assembly chartered the W&P Railroad in 1831. Routes were then surveyed by the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers from 1831 to 1832. Construction of the W&P began in 1833 with Moncure Robinson as head engineer. It was completed by 1836, beginning its first operations on March 14 of that year.[3]:191 The B&O had reached Harpers Ferry in 1834.