On this day in 1827, the General Assembly of Maryland issued a charter to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company – the first commercial railroad in America.
Starting in 1825, the Erie Canal providing a water path connecting New York City to Ohio via Lake Erie. The fast-growing port city of Baltimore, Maryland, faced economic stagnation unless it opened a route to the Western states. On February 27, 1827, twenty-five merchants and bankers studied the best means of restoring “that portion of the Western trade which has recently been diverted from it by the introduction of steam navigation.” Their answer was to build a railroad: one of the first commercial lines in the world.
Construction began on July 4, 1828. Charles Carroll of Carrollton (the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence) laying the cornerstone at a groundbreaking ceremony. Building west from the port of Baltimore, the B&O reached Sandy Hook, Maryland, in 1834; Cumberland in 1842; the Ohio River at Moundsville, Virginia, in 1852; Wheeling, Virginia, in 1853; and in 1857, Parkersburg, Virginia, below rapids that made navigation difficult during parts of the year.
It was the first US railroad to operate a steam locomotive (Tom Thumb). The first telegraph line in the US was built along the B&O right of way between Washington and Baltimore. It built the first passenger and freight station (Mount Clare in 1829) and was the first railroad to earn passenger revenues in December 1829, and publish a timetable on May 23, 1830. Baltimore’s Carrollton Viaduct, named in honor of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, was the B&O’s first bridge, and is the oldest railway bridge in the Americas still carrying trains. The Thomas Viaduct at Relay, Maryland, was the longest bridge in the United States upon its completion in 1835. It also remains in use.
Carrollton Viaduct
Hmm…
I have questions…
DIY
Today is the birthday, in 1941, of American guitarist and singer Marty Sanders from Jay and the Americans, who had the 1962 hit with ‘She Cried’ and the 1969 US No.6 single ‘This Magic Moment’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sFy5_kmEi4
