During the American Civil War, the New Jersey Avenue Station was the major embarkation site for hundreds of thousands of Union troops.

It was from that station that his body along with his son "Willie" Lincoln began its long journey to his final resting place in Illinois after he was assassinated on April 14, 1865.

In 1831 the Maryland General Assembly authorized the B&O to build a branch from their main line within 8 miles (13 km) of Baltimore, to Washington, DC.

[5] On March 2, 1857, President-Elect James Buchanan arrived at five o'clock in Washington through the New Jersey Avenue Station, just two days before his inauguration.

[6] On February 23, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived at the New Jersey Avenue station from Baltimore for his inauguration as President as his predecessor had done.

[8] On April 14, 1865, (Good Friday) President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford's Theater as the American Civil War was drawing to a close.

[9] On April 21 at about six o'clock in the morning, the members of the Cabinet, a delegation from Illinois, the pall bearers along with several officers of the Army and the Senators gathered in the Rotunda for a final farewell.

The casket was then loaded onto a hearse under a guard of honor made up of the companies of Captains Cromee, Bush, Hillebrand and Dillon and from the 12th Regiment of the Veteran Reserve Corps, under the command of Lieut.

[9] His son Willie Lincoln had died at age 11 years on February 20, 1862, and had been interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown.

On April 20, 1865, his body was removed from its metallic burial case and transferred into a silver mounted black walnut coffin.

The funeral train left the Washington Depot for Baltimore, Maryland, its first stop in a journey which would finally lead them to Springfield, Illinois.

[11] The 106-foot (32 m) tall front of the Italianate-style railway depot located on Capitol Hill was dominated by a four-sided clock tower that rose 100 feet (30 m).

Here is the evolution of the B&O lines over time from the first depot on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1835 to the consolidation of all railways in Washington Union Station in 1907.