CAPITAL TO BAY LINE
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Special to The Washington Post.
    Philadelphia, Aug. 6.--A project for a Washington to tidewater railroad through Maryland, abandoned half a century ago, has been revived, and at a meeting of the promoters of the enterprise in the offices of State Attorney General John C. Bell, in the Land Title and Trust building today, plans for launching a $2,000,000 corporation were formulated.
    The charter for the railroad, to be known as the Washington and Tidewater Railroad Company, was granted by the legislature of the State of Maryland in 1910, but the matter lay dormant pending the development of the company's plans for launching the project on a substantial basis and the surveying of the railroad routes.
    The original plans for the railroad, which was to run from Washington, D. C., southeast to Point Lookout, the southern extremity of the Potomac peninsula, a distance of 72 miles, were made soon after the conclusion of the civil war. In 1868 the project fell through after three-fourths of the route had been roughly graded.

    Subsequently the grading was utilized for 21 miles by a single track road running from Brandywine, in Charles county, to Mechanicsville, in St. Mary county. This road is in a dilapidated condition, but is still in operation. It is known as the Washington and Potomac Railroad, and will be taken over by the Washington and Tidewater Railroad Company, and double tracked as well as incorporated in the modernizing plans which the new company will carry out on the entire route of the new road.
    The new railroad is planned to have its main offices and northern terminus at Washington. It will run in a general direction southeast through Prince George county and Charles county to the route of the Washington and Potomac Railroad, commencing at Brandywine. It will run on the same roadbed as this line throughout its 21 miles to Mechanicsville. The main line of the new road will be continued from Mechanicsville to Point Lookout, at the southern extremity of the peninsula, at the junction of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.

    A branch of the Washington and Tidewater Railroad is being planned to run westward from Morganza, in St. Mary county, to Leonardtown, on the Potomac River.
    The organizers of the company are Philadelphians and residents of Baltimore. Henry Wynkoop Peirson, of this city, is the leading spirit in the enterprise. The other members are W. Bernard Duke, vice president of the National Bank of Baltimore; Francis T. Homer and George R. Willis, prominent members of the law firm of Willis & Homer, of Baltimore, and William Morgan Montgomery, of Philadelphia. State Attorney General John C. Beall, law associate of Mr. Montgomery, is also interested in the project.

Source:

Unknown, "Capital To Bay Line," Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, 6 August, 1912, p. 3.