An extension completed in 1931 connected it to the Western Maryland Railway at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, forming part of the Alphabet Route, a coalition of independent lines between the Northeastern United States and the Midwest.

On December 27, 2004, the Wabash Tunnel just southwest of the bridge opened as a high occupancy vehicle roadway through Mount Washington.

In addition to the Pittsburgh extension, Gould planned a line from Zanesville southeast to Belington, West Virginia, which was built by the Little Kanawha Syndicate.

From Belington east to tidewater in Baltimore, the Fuller Syndicate bought the West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railway and a controlling interest in the Western Maryland Railroad in 1902.

After years of operation by its receivers, the company was finally sold at foreclosure in August 1916 and reorganized November as the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway.

The existing West Side Belt Railroad provided for the beginning of this extension, crossing the P&WV at the southwest portal of the Wabash Tunnel under Mount Washington and running southeast and east to Clairton on the Monongahela River.

After an initial denial, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the P&WV's plan to acquire the West Side Belt in December 1928.

[2][3] On February 11, 1931, the extension to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, opened, where the Western Maryland continued east, splitting from the West Side Belt at Pierce[citation needed].

This formed what came to be known as the Alphabet Route, following roughly the same plan as Gould's system but using the Nickel Plate Road rather than the Wabash to reach both St. Louis and Chicago.

The Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad was organized in 1967 as a real estate investment trust to own the property leased to the N&W.

The railroad is now a subsidiary of Power REIT, a real estate investment trust that is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol "PW".

The P&WV lease was transferred to the new W&LE, which has also acquired trackage rights over CSX Transportation lines from Connellsville East to Hagerstown, Maryland.