Berkeley County is located in the Shenandoah Valley in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Berkeley Springs is a town in, and the county seat of, Morgan County, West Virginia, United States, in the state's Eastern Panhandle. In 1776, the Virginia Legislature incorporated a town around the springs and named it Bath. Since 1802, it has been referred to by the name of its original Virginia post office, Berkeley Springs. The population of the town was 800 (estimated). The town is located within the Hagerstown–Martinsburg, MD–WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Berkeley Springs is a sister city to Bath, Somerset, England.
U.S. Route 522 is a spur route of US 22 in the U.S. states of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The U.S. Highway runs 308.59 miles (496.63 km) from US 60 near Powhatan, Virginia, north to US 11 and US 15 near Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. US 522 serves many small cities and towns in the Piedmont, Blue Ridge Mountains, and northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The highway serves the Virginia communities of Goochland, Mineral, Culpeper, the town of Washington, and Front Royal and the independent city of Winchester. US 522 then follows the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians north and then east through the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, a 2-mile-wide (3.2 km) stretch of Western Maryland, and South Central Pennsylvania to its terminus in the Susquehanna Valley. The highway serves Berkeley Springs, West Virginia; Hancock, Maryland; and the Pennsylvania communities of McConnellsburg, Mount Union, Lewistown, and Middleburg.
West Virginia Route 45 is a state highway in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The state highway runs 25.8 miles (41.5 km) from the Virginia state line near Glengary east to WV 230 and WV 480 in Shepherdstown. WV 45 connects the communities of Glengary and Arden in southwestern Berkeley County with the county seat of Martinsburg. The state highway also connects Shepherdstown in northern Jefferson County with Martinsburg, where the highway meets Interstate 81 (I-81), U.S. Route 11, and WV 9.
The South Branch Valley Railroad consists of a 52.4 mile (84.33 km) length of railroad in the U.S. state of West Virginia extending north along the South Branch Potomac River from Petersburg to the CSXT mainline at Green Spring adjacent to the Potomac River. At Green Spring, the CSXT mainline connects the SBVR to Cumberland, Maryland to the west and Martinsburg, West Virginia to the east. SBVR has been owned and operated by the West Virginia State Rail Authority (SRA) since it was sold by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on October 11, 1978. Upon purchasing the B&O's South Branch line, West Virginia became the first state in the United States to both own and operate a commercial freight railroad. In 1985, major flooding of the South Branch Valley destroyed most of the rail line, including all three bridges that crossed the South Branch Potomac River. Despite talk of shutting down the railroad after the flood, reconstruction began two years later.
Sleepy Creek is a 44.0-mile-long (70.8 km) tributary of the Potomac River in the United States, belonging to the Chesapeake Bay's watershed. The stream rises in Frederick County, Virginia, and flows through Morgan County, West Virginia before joining the Potomac near the community of Sleepy Creek.
Great Cacapon is a census-designated place (CDP) in Morgan County in the U.S. state of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. As of the 2010 census, its population was 386.
Hancock is an unincorporated community hamlet in Morgan County in the U.S. state of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. It is located off Hancock Road on River Road along the Potomac River north of Berkeley Springs. Originally known as Brosius, its post office's name was changed to Hancock in 1948 to reflect its location on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad mainline across the river from Hancock, Maryland.
Sleepy Creek is an unincorporated community in Morgan County, West Virginia on the Potomac River at the mouth of Sleepy Creek. By 1860, Sleepy Creek had a post office and functioned as an important station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Cherry Run is a 7.2-mile-long (11.6 km) meandering stream that forms the northern section of the boundary between Morgan and Berkeley counties in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. While it is mostly non-navigable, Cherry Run provides many pools of varying depths for fishing and swimming. As a tributary of the Potomac River, Cherry Run is part of the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay watersheds.
Magnolia is an unincorporated community northeast of Paw Paw in Morgan County in the U.S. state of West Virginia on the Potomac River. Magnolia is located along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad mainline and east of where the Western Maryland Railway crosses the Potomac, bypassing a series of bends in the river. As a depot and water station on the B&O, Magnolia has been known by a number of names including Magnolia Dale, Magnolia Vale, and sometimes as Water Station Number 12 on the railroad.
Hansrote is an unincorporated community village in Morgan County in the U.S. state of West Virginia located along the old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) mainline on the Potomac River. Hansrote is northeast of Magnolia and southwest of Doe Gully. Stuart Tunnel connected Hansrote and Magnolia by railroad, but today Hansrote is accessible by way of Hansrote Road from Magnolia Road. The former B&O mainline is now part of CSX Transportation and is a popular location with railfans.
Sir Johns Run is an unincorporated community hamlet at the mouth of Sir Johns Run on the Potomac River in Morgan County, West Virginia northwest of Berkeley Springs. It is bound to its west by the Widmeyer Wildlife Management Area and to its east by Warm Springs Ridge. While Sir Johns Run formerly served on the old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad mainline as an early passenger station for Berkeley Springs, today it is primarily a residential community of Berkeley Springs accessible by Sir Johns Run Road. Sir Johns Run had its own post office in operation from 1850 to 1938. Today, the stream and its namesake hamlet are a site on the Washington Heritage Trail.
Holton is a small unincorporated community in northeastern Morgan County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Holton lies on Martinsburg Road at its junction with Cherry Run Road along Cherry Run and the Berkeley County line. Holton had its own post office in operation between 1889 and 1903. Pleasant View Elementary School, one of three elementary schools still operational in Morgan County as of 2020, is located in Holton.
In the U.S. state of West Virginia, Interstate 81 (I-81) crosses the Eastern Panhandle region, linking Virginia to Maryland. The Interstate Highway, completed in 1966, spans 26.00 miles (41.84 km) through Berkeley County, paralleling U.S. Route 11 (US 11) for its entire length. I-81 enters the state near Ridgeway and travels northeast, bypassing the city of Martinsburg, and leaves the state at the Potomac River, which serves as the state line. The first solicitations for the construction of I-81 were published in 1959, with the first 6 miles (9.7 km) of freeway being opened in 1963, and the full length was completed by 1966. On average between 45 and 60 thousand vehicles use the freeway through the panhandle per day.
Martinsburg is a railway station in Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States, served by Amtrak and MARC. The station also included the historic Baltimore and Ohio Railroad roundhouse, and Martinsburg Shops.
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops is a historic industrial district in Martinsburg, West Virginia. It is significant both for its railroading architecture by Albert Fink and John Rudolph Niernsee and for its role in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It consists of three contributing buildings, one of which is the oldest covered roundhouse in the United States. The presence of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in Martinsburg dates back to the late 1840s, when the first engine and machine shops were erected for the expanding company.
U.S. Route 11 (US 11) in the U.S. state of West Virginia spans 26.2 miles (42.2 km) across the Eastern Panhandle region. US 11 enters the state near Ridgeway, and crosses into Maryland just south of Williamsport. The highway closely parallels Interstate 81 (I-81) for its entire length.
The Hagerstown–Martinsburg Metropolitan Area, officially designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as Hagerstown–Martinsburg, Maryland–West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), constitutes the primary cities of Hagerstown, Maryland, Martinsburg, West Virginia, and surrounding areas in three counties: Washington County, Maryland, Berkeley County, West Virginia, and Morgan County, West Virginia. The metro area lies mainly within the rich, fertile Cumberland and Shenandoah valleys, and is approximately a 60–90 minute drive from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Maryland, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Hagerstown is approximately 75 miles (121 km) driving distance from all three cities. The population of the metropolitan area as of 2008 is 263,753.
The West Virginian, later known as the Potomac Turbo and Potomac Special, was a daily passenger train operated by Amtrak between Washington, D.C. and Parkersburg, West Virginia. This route was previously served by the Baltimore & Ohio's (B&O) train of the same name, and was the first of several services in the state of West Virginia established at the behest of US Representative Harley Orrin Staggers, the powerful chair of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee. This patronage earned the train the derisive sobriquets "Harley's Hornet" and the "Staggers Special".
