Martinsburg, County seat in Eastern Panhandle, West Virginia, United States.
Martinsburg is a town and county seat of Berkeley County in the Shenandoah Valley of West Virginia. The settlement sits at a crossroads of transport routes at an elevation of roughly 450 feet (138 meters) and serves as a regional center for industry and agriculture.
The Virginia General Assembly founded the town in December 1778 during the War of Independence. Railroad workshops of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad developed in the 19th century and became in 1877 the starting point of a nationwide labor dispute that brought in federal troops.
The town takes its name from Colonel Thomas Bryan Martin, whose family once held large tracts of land in the region. Today the streetscape shows brick buildings from the 19th century and wide streets that recall the railroad era.
The interstate highway 81 runs northeast toward Maryland and makes the approach by car straightforward. The town center can be explored on foot, with many shops and services within easy walking distance.
The first post office in the territory of what would become West Virginia opened here in 1792. This early facility shows how important the place was as a crossroads even before the railroad era.
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