Georgetown Branch history and "what-if"

[Joke Insurance]

http://www.cctrail.org/cct_history.htm

Determined to overcome this problem, the B&O contrived a plan to develop its own rail connection to northern Virginia rail systems by bypassing Alexandria and crossing the Potomac on the western side of Washington. The proposed rail line would leave the B&O’s Metropolitan Branch just west of Silver Spring and turn south along the western boundary of the District of Columbia. It would then cross the Potomac just west of Chain Bridge, where the river was unnavigable and narrow so that a bridge would not interfere with commercial river traffic. Once across the Potomac, the line would proceed to south to Quantico via Fairfax Station.

If that ever came to fruition, where exactly do you think the rail line would have traversed? What do you think this would have done for the area? I'd also imagine that the line would be double-tracked from Silver Spring to Quantico.

[hutton_switch]

Courtesy of Duane Carrell of the B&O Yahoo group, and based on what Herbert H. Harwood wrote in his book, Impossible Challenge II,the line would have crossed the Potomac just below Little Falls and run up Pimmit Run, then paralleled Kirby Rd. to near the Dulles Cutoff from I-66, crossed Leesburg Pike and then the Beltway between the Rt. 7 and 66 exits, through Dunn Loring and would have crossed I-66 very near the Nutley St. exit. Then into Fairfax near the junction of Lee Hwy. and Arlington Blvd., parallel Ox Rd. to Fairfax Station. If it went further it would have likely gone through Potomac Mills and crossed I-95 between Dumfries and Triangle. It would have been single track all the way. No passenger trains and the Alexandria Branch has always been single track with all the Potomac Yard traffic.

[hutton_switch]

In addition to what Duane Carrell provided, somehow I wonder how, where, and when the RF&P might have gotten involved?