Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
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1876_B&O.jpg
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) is one of the oldest railroads in the United States, with an original line from the port of Baltimore, Maryland west to the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia. It is now part of the CSX network, and includes the oldest operational railroad bridge in the world.
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History
Chapter 123 of the 1826 Session Laws of Maryland, passed February 28, 1827, and the state of Virginia on March 8, 1827, chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company, with the task of building a railroad from the port of Baltimore, Maryland west to a suitable point on the Ohio River. The railroad, formally incorporated April 24, was intended to provide an alternative, faster, route for Midwestern goods to reach the East Coast than the seven-year-old, hugely successful, but slow Erie Canal across upstate New York.
Construction began on July 4, 1828, and the first section, from Baltimore west to Ellicott's Mills, opened on May 24, 1830. Further extensions opened to Frederick (including the short Frederick Branch) December 1, 1831, Point of Rocks April 2, 1832, Sandy Hook December 1, 1834 (the connection to the Winchester and Potomac Railroad at Harpers Ferry opening in 1837), Martinsburg May 1842, Hancock June 1842, Cumberland November 5, 1842, Piedmont July 21, 1851, Fairmont June 22, 1852 and its terminus at Wheeling, West Virginia (then part of Virginia) on January 1, 1853.
On July 20, 1877 there were bloody riots in Baltimore, Maryland from Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers. Nine rail workers were killed at the hands of the Maryland militia. The next day workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania staged a sympathy strike that was also met with an assault by the state militia; Pittsburgh then erupted into widespread rioting.
In 1882 construction of the Philadelphia Branch was authorized by the Maryland Legislature.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad took control of the B&O in 1963, and incorporated it, along with the Western Maryland Railway, into the Chessie System in 1973. In 1980, the Chessie System merged with the Seaboard System Railroad to create CSX. In 1986, the B&O finally went out of existence when it formally merged with the C&O (which itself formally merged with CSX later that same year).
Early engineering
When construction began on the B&O in the 1820s, railroad engineering was in its infancy. Unsure of exactly which materials would suffice, the B&O erred on the side of sturdiness and built many of its early structures of granite. Even the track bed to which iron strap rail was affixed consisted of the stone.
Though the granite soon proved too unforgiving and expensive for track, most of the B&O's bridges have survived until the present, and many are still in active railroad use by CSX. Baltimore's Carrollton Viaduct, named in honor of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, is the world's oldest railroad bridge still in use. The Thomas Viaduct in Relay, Maryland was the longest bridge in the United States upon its completion in 1835, and remains in use as well.
Branches
- Washington
In 1831 a law was passed in Maryland, enabling the B&O to build its Washington Branch, connecting Baltimore to the national capital of Washington, D.C. This opened in 1835, and later served as a terminus for the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad to Annapolis.
- Mount Airy
- Frederick
The Frederick Branch was built as part of the original line, opening on December 1, 1831. The continuation of the main line from Frederick Junction opened April 2, 1832.
- Metropolitan
Trivia
In the U.S. version of the board game Monopoly, the B&O is one of the four railroad properties on the board.
External links
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- B&O Railroad Historical Society (http://www.borhs.org/)
- B&O Railroad Photo Tours in and around Maryland (http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/)
- Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum (http://www.borail.org/)
References
- Railroad History Database (http://www.earlpleasants.com/search_1.asp)
- The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Timeline (http://www.geocities.com/scott_w_dunlap/Main5.html)
- Mileposts from CSX Transportation Timetables (http://web.archive.org/web/20040718192935/www.trainweb.org/csxtimetables/Contents.html)