Cumberland

Cumberland, city, seat (1789) of Allegany county, northwestern Maryland, U.S. It lies in a bowl-shaped valley in the narrow panhandle region between Pennsylvania (north) and West Virginia (south), bounded by the Potomac River to the south. It is situated at the entrance to Cumberland Narrows, a natural gateway carved by Wills Creek through the Allegheny Mountains west to the Ohio River valley. Settled in 1750 as a trading post by the Ohio Company, it was first known as Will’s Creek. The town was laid out again in 1785 and was renamed in 1786 for Fort Cumberland, which had been built in 1754 and named for William Augustus, duke of Cumberland; the fort was headquarters for Lieutenant Colonel George Washington and General Edward Braddock in the French and Indian War. Cumberland developed into a transportation centre: it was made the eastern terminus (1811) of the Cumberland (National) Road and the western terminus (1850) of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and in 1842 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad came through.

Cumberland was occupied by Union troops during the American Civil War. On February 21, 1865, two sleeping Union generals, Benjamin Kelley and George Crook, were captured there by Captain John McNeill’s Rangers. Coal mining, diversified manufactures (railroad equipment, fibreglass boats, and children’s clothing), and outdoor recreation are the economic mainstays. The main campus of Allegany College of Maryland (1961) is in Cumberland. Inc. town, 1815; city, 1856. Pop. (2000) 21,518; Cumberland Metro Area, 102,008; (2010) 20,859; Cumberland Metro Area, 103,299.