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1902 Map of Wheeling

Name: 1902 Topographic Map of Wheeling
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1904
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1904

About this map

Ohio River industrial corridors and early transportation networks dominate this 1902 survey of the tri-state border region. At the southern bend, Wheeling and Martins Ferry form a dense urban core of iron and manufacturing, highlighted by landmarks like Top Mill and Mount de Chantal. This era captures a landscape transitioning from turnpikes to heavy rail, where the National Ohio Pike and Wellsburg and Bethany Turnpike intersect with a web of rail lines including the Baltimore and Ohio RR and the Wheeling and Lake Erie R.R.

Upriver, the map reveals the layout of numerous mill towns and river landings such as Beach Bottom and Tiltonville. The rugged interior topography is dotted with small rural centers like Bethany and West Liberty, showing the distribution of hilltop settlements and creek-bottom homesteads before modern sprawl. Researchers can trace the exact routes of several competing railroads as they navigated the narrow river banks and steep ravines of the Wheeling Creek drainage.