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Re: Re: Weaverton take out at mouth of Israel Creek
Submitted by Tony Allred on 07/Apr/2015 in reply to Re: Weaverton take out at mouth of Israel Creek posted by Yukon John on 05/Apr/2015
167.102.133.162
Message:
John,
The railroad crossing you are referring to is the "Weverton" Crossing and as Richard (Oci-One) has said, it is a legal at-grade railroad crossing that accommodates a number of properties along the Potomac, as well as the Appalachian Trail which crosses the Railroad at the Weverton location as well. In fact, I remember when we used to DRIVE across the railroad at Weverton and park on the river side of the railroad, which shortened the carry considerably and offered much more parking. At some point the locked gate (presumably the property owners have keys) was moved from the river side of the railroad to the road side eliminating most of the parking at Weverton.
Currently, the Appalachian Trail (AT) descends from Loudoun Heights and crosses the relatively new WV 340 Bridge across the Shenandoah and follows a trail past Jefferson Rock into Harpers Ferry. From Harpers Ferry, the trail crosses the Potomac on a Pedestrian crossing on the older Shenandoah branch railroad bridge and joins the C&O Canal trail going downstream to Weverton where it crosses the railroad (at the legal Weverton crossing) and goes under US 340 at Israel Creek to begin the climb up to Weverton Heights.
Prior to the construction of the new WV 340 bridge across the Shenandoah and the NPS development of the pedestrian crossing of the Potomac on the Shenandoah branch railroad bridge. The AT came down from Loudoun Heights followed US 340 to the MD 340 bridge across the Potomac then dropping down to Harpers Ferry Road (on the paved trail that's currently blocked off), crossing the railroad at the Sandy Hook crossing we all know so well and joining the C&O Canal trail down to Weverton.
One of the stated purposes of relocating the AT on the new alignment was to stop the trail from crossing the railroad at Sandy Hook (in addition to getting more of the trail away from US 340 and getting it to go through Historic Harpers Ferry). But, one of the consequences of the closing of pedestrian access to Sandy Hook from the C&O is that it isolates the Sandy Hook Hosteling International Hostel which is no longer easily accessible to the AT.
Anyway, during the time that the AT crossed the railroad at Sandy Hook (from the 1950's through the 1990's) significant pedestrian traffic both paddler, fishing and other river access, used the AT crossing to access the river at Sandy Hook.
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