Ohio River The railroad reached the
Ohio River in 1852, 24 years after the project started. From the railroad's founding, one of its primary goals was to link the East Coast transportation hub of
Baltimore across the Ohio River to
Midwestern states. By crossing the
Appalachian Mountains, a technical challenge, the railroad would link the new and booming territories of what at the time was the West, including
Ohio,
Indiana, and
Kentucky, with the east coast rail and boat network, from
Maryland northward. There was no rail link between Maryland and
Virginia until the B&O opened the
Harpers Ferry bridge in 1839. Beginning in 1825, the
Erie Canal provided an animal-powered water facility, connecting New York City with Ohio via
Lake Erie. It took ten days to travel downstream from
Buffalo, New York, to New York City. The
Cumberland Road, later the beginning of the federally financed
National Road, provided a road link for animal-powered transport between
Cumberland, Maryland, on the
Potomac River and
Wheeling, Virginia, in present-day
West Virginia, on the Ohio River, when it was completed in 1837. It was the second paved road in the country. However, the 1831
DeWitt Clinton locomotive, running between
Albany and
Schenectady, New York, demonstrated speeds of , dramatically decreasing the cost of transportation and announcing the coming end of the canal and turnpike (road) systems, many of which were never completed since they were or would soon be obsolete. In New York, political support for the Erie Canal detracted from the prospect of building a railroad to replace it, whose full length did not open until 1844. Mountains in
Pennsylvania made construction in the western part of the state expensive and technically challenging; the
Pennsylvania Railroad, linking
Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia, did not open its full length until 1852, and there was no rail link west from Pittsburgh to Ohio for several more years. 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. Their plans worked well, despite many political problems from canal backers and other railroads. Only the
Pennsylvania Railroad was allowed to build in its namesake state, requiring the B&O to skirt around a corner of the state, even though the Pennsylvania Railroad didn't even operate in that area of Pennsylvania. The railroad grew from a capital base of $3 million in 1827 (equivalent to $ million in ) to a large enterprise generating $2.7 million of annual profit on its of track in 1854, with 19 million passenger miles. The railroad fed tens of millions of dollars of shipments to and from Baltimore and its growing hinterland to the west, thus making the city the commercial and financial capital of the region south of Philadelphia.
Charters Although the
Albany and Schenectady Railroad was chartered a year earlier, in 1826, the B & O Railroad was the first to open in the US.
Philip E. Thomas and
George Brown were the pioneers of the railroad. In 1826, they investigated railway enterprises in
England, which were at that time being tested in a comprehensive fashion as commercial ventures. but the B&O was initially capitalized in 1827 with a $3 million issue of stock. Half of this stock was reserved for the Maryland state government, which invested $1,000,000, and the municipal government of Baltimore, which invested $500,000. The remaining private equity was purchased by around 22,000 people, equivalent to one-quarter of the city's population at the time.
Early construction and legal battles under a painting depicting
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, at a groundbreaking ceremony on July 4, 1828. Construction began on July 4, 1828. The initial tracks were built with
granite stringers topped by
strap iron rails. The first section, from Baltimore west to Ellicott's Mills (now known as
Ellicott City), opened on May 24, 1830. While a steam locomotive (
Tom Thumb) was demonstrated on the B&O in 1830, the railroad did not switch to steam until 1831, and the first trains on the round trip to Ellicott's Mills were pulled by horses. From Ellicott's Mills, the railroad followed the
Patapsco River upstream to a high point near Parr's Ridge (now known as
Mount Airy), where it descended into the
Monocacy and Potomac river valleys. Further extensions opened to
Frederick (including the short
Frederick Branch) on December 1, 1831;
Point of Rocks on April 2, 1832; and
Sandy Hook on December 1, 1834. Sandy Hook, on the north bank of the Potomac, remained the end of the line until 1836 when the railroad opened its
bridge over the Potomac River to reach
Harpers Ferry (then Virginia, now West Virginia). A connection at Harpers Ferry with the
Winchester and Potomac Railroad, running southwest to
Winchester, Virginia, opened in 1837. Pushing west from Harpers Ferry, the B&O reached
Martinsburg in May 1842;
Hancock in June 1842; and
Cumberland on November 5, 1842, which remained the end of the line for a number of years. Additional sections opened to
Piedmont on July 21, 1851, and
Fairmont on June 22, 1852. Later that year, the B&O finally reached the
Ohio River at
Moundsville, where port facilities were built, followed shortly later by
Wheeling (then Virginia, now West Virginia) on January 1, 1853. Wheeling remained the terminus through the
American Civil War until a bridge could be constructed across the Ohio River. The narrow strip of available land along the Potomac River between Point of Rocks and Harpers Ferry caused years of legal battles between the B&O and the
Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal, as both sought to exclude the other from its use. A compromise eventually allowed the two companies to share the
right of way. The B&O also prevailed in a lawsuit brought against it by the Washington and Baltimore Turnpike Road. File:Recto Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company (Maryland) 12 and a half cents 1841 urn-3 HBS.Baker.AC 1142257.jpeg|alt=Note inscribed No. 121 Baltimore February 10, 1841 Baltimore and Ohio RAILROAD COMPANY. Transfer to the holder of this order TWELVE AND A HALF CENTS in the Stock of the City of Baltimore bearing Six per cent interest payable quarterly when said holder presents orders amounting to One Hundred Dollars or upwards. [Commissioners holding the Stock to redeem these orders]." The note is illustrated with an illustration of two standing women on the left, and one sitting woman on the right.|thumb|Twelve and a half cent note issued by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in 1841. The B&O wanted links to Virginia's
Shenandoah Valley, as well as the parts of western Virginia draining into the Ohio River valley and ultimately the
Mississippi River, such as
Wheeling (where the
National Road crossed the Ohio River) and the
Kanawha River valley. However, many Virginia politicians wanted the minerals, timber and produce of those areas to instead ship through
Richmond and reach the Atlantic through
Norfolk, although the
James River Canal required substantial maintenance and was never completed through the Appalachians to the Ohio River watershed. Thus, while the B&O reached Wheeling in 1853, political compromises meant the B&O would only reach
Grafton to connect to
Parkersburg on the Ohio River through a connection with the
Northwestern Virginia Railroad which was completed in 1857. During the "Great Railway Celebrations of 1857", a large group of notables boarded the B&O in Baltimore, then transferred to steamboats that took them from Wheeling to
Marietta, Ohio, where they boarded a railroad to Cincinnati, where after another celebration, they boarded the
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, which brought them to St. Louis, Missouri, three days after they had started their journey. The B&O would only reach
Charleston (at the confluence of the Kanawha and Elk Rivers) and ultimately
Huntington (which was named after a major B&O investor) on the Ohio River more than a decade after the American Civil War and the creation of the state of
West Virginia. Meanwhile, the State of Maryland granted the B&O a charter to build a line from Baltimore to
Washington, D.C., in 1831, and the
Washington Branch was opened in 1835. This line joined to the original mainline at
Relay, Maryland, crossing the Patapsco River on the
Thomas Viaduct (which remains one of the B&O's signature structures). This line was partially funded by the state of Maryland, and was operated separately until the 1870s, with Maryland receiving a 25 percent cut of gross passenger receipts. The B&O's charter also forbade further taxation of the railroad, and that no-tax provision was upheld in the 1840s after Baltimore City tried to tax it. This Washington Branch line was built in stone, much like the original mainline. By this time, however, strap rail was no longer used for new construction. Most of the stone bridges on the
Old Main Line did not last long, being washed out by the periodic flooding of the Patapsco River and replaced at first by
Bollman Truss bridges. The
Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad to
Annapolis connected to this line at Annapolis Junction in 1840. As an unwritten condition for the charter, it was understood that the state of Maryland would not charter any competing line between Baltimore and Washington, and no such charters were approved until well after the American Civil War, when the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired a railroad on the Delmarva Peninsula, which had the power to build short branch lines, so it was able to connect to Washington through
Bowie, Maryland. The B&O also wanted access to Pittsburgh and coal fields in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Although the directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad sought a monopoly in their state, delays in laying track to Pittsburgh led the Pennsylvania legislature in 1846 to require construction to be completed within 10 years, else competition would be allowed. The Pennsylvania Railroad finished its trans-Allegheny track with two years to spare. Denied a direct route to Pittsburgh, the B&O supported development of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad, under the leadership of former B&O Chief Engineer Benjamin Latrobe, eventually gaining full control when the final connection to
Cumberland, Maryland, was completed in 1871. In the early 20th century, F. A. Durban, a former president of the
DT&I and
Ann Arbor railroads, served as general counsel until his sudden death in 1915 at age 60.
Early engineering When construction began on the B&O in the 1820s, railroad engineering was in its infancy. Unsure 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 the iron strap rail was affixed consisted of stone. Though the granite soon proved too unforgiving and expensive for track, most of the B&O's monumental bridges have survived to this day, and many are still in active railroad use by CSX. 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 (and the third oldest in the world, after the
Skerne Bridge, Darlington, UK, of 1824–1825, and the
Bassaleg Viaduct, Newport, UK, of 1826). The
Thomas Viaduct at
Relay, Maryland, was the longest bridge in the United States upon its completion in 1835. It also remains in use. The B&O made extensive use of the
Bollman iron truss bridge design in the mid-19th century. Its durability and ease of assembly aided faster railroad construction. As the B&O built the main line west to
Parr's Ridge, near
Mount Airy, Maryland, it had limited information about the capabilities of steam locomotives; at the time, the line had three, the
York, Atlantic, and the
Franklin. Conflicts in the early years Partial government ownership caused some operational problems. Of the thirty members on its
board of directors, twelve were elected by shareholders, while eighteen were appointed either by Maryland or the
Baltimore City Council. Many had conflicting interests: the directors appointed by the state and city desired low
fares and all construction to be funded from corporate revenues, while the directors elected by shareholders desired greater
profits and
dividends. These conflicts became more intense in the 1850s after the completion of the C&O Canal, which brought additional competition to the B&O. In 1853, after being nominated by large shareholder and director
Johns Hopkins,
John W. Garrett became president of the B&O, a position he would hold until his death in 1884. In the first year of his presidency, corporate
operating costs were reduced from 65 percent of revenues to 46 percent, After confirming from the Martinsburg station (via Wheeling, because of the cut telegraph line) that the report was not a hoax, Garrett telegraphed President
James Buchanan, the
Secretary of War,
the Governor of Virginia, and Maryland Militia General
George Hume Steuart about the insurrection in progress. The B&O made its rolling stock available to the military. At 3:20 pm a train left Washington Depot with 87 U.S. Marines and two howitzers, and a 3:45 p.m. train from nearer
Frederick, Maryland, carried three Maryland militia companies under Col. Edward Shriver. These trains stopped before the bridge at
Sandy Hook, Maryland (end of the line before the bridge was built), and troops continued across the bridge on foot. Soon Garrett's Master of Transportation William Prescott Smith left Baltimore City, together with Maryland Gen. Charles G. Egerton Jr. and the
Second Light Brigade, which train also picked up the Marines on the federal troop train at the junction in
Relay, Maryland. All awaited Lt. Col.
Robert E. Lee and Lt.
J.E.B. Stuart, who had received orders from the Secretary of War to retake Harpers Ferry and capture the insurgent abolitionists, which they quickly did. Garrett reported with evident relief the next day that aside from the cut telegraph line, which was quickly repaired, there had been no damage to any B&O track, equipment, or facilities. The government of Maryland published in a book the many telegrams sent by B&O employees and management during the raid. Furthermore, the Pennsylvania Railroad and other investors sought permission to construct rail lines which threatened the B&O's monopolies on the Washington Branch (between Relay and Washington DC) and westward through Cumberland, Maryland. Raids and battles during the war also cost the B&O substantial losses, many never indemnified. Master of Transportation Prescott Smith kept a diary during the war years, describing incidents such as the June 1861 derailment of a 50 car coal train, which plunged into a ravine after a bridge was destroyed (the wreckage burned for months and melted the metal coal hoppers), as well as later ironclad trains (one only disabled by an artillery shell piercing the boiler).
1861–1862 On April 18, 1861, the day after Virginia seceded from the Union, Virginia militia seized the federal arsenal at
Harpers Ferry, which was also an important work station on the B&O's main westward line. The following day,
Confederate rioters in Baltimore attempted to prevent Pennsylvania volunteers from proceeding from the North Central Railway's Bolton station to the B&O's Mount Clare station, and Maryland's governor Hicks and Baltimore Mayor
George W. Brown ordered 3 North Central and 2
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) bridges destroyed to prevent further federal troop movements through (and riots in) the city. Soon B&O president
John Work Garrett received letters from Virginia's Governor
John Letcher telling the B&O to pass no federal troops destined for any place in Virginia over the railroad, and threatening to confiscate the lines.
Charles Town's mayor also wrote, threatening to cut the B&O's main line by destroying the long bridge over the Potomac River at Harpers Ferry, and Garrett also received anonymous threats. Thus he and others asked Secretary of War Cameron to protect the B&O as the national capitol's main westward link. Cameron instead warned Garrett that passage of any rebel troops over his line would be treason. The Secretary of War agreed to station troops to protect the North Central, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and even the PW&B, but flatly refused to help the B&O, his main competition. The B&O had to repair damaged line at its own expense, and often received late or no payment for services rendered to the federal government. In May, CSA Colonel
Jackson's operations against the B&O Railroad (1861) began. Stonewall Jackson initially permitted B&O trains to operate during limited hours over the approximately from Point of Rocks to Cumberland. On June 20, 1861, Jackson's Confederates seized
Martinsburg, a major B&O work center, having blown up the Harpers Ferry railroad bridge on June 14. Confederates confiscated dozens of locomotives and train cars and ripped up double track in order to ship rails for Confederate use in Virginia (14 locomotives and 83 rail cars were dismantled and sent south, and another 42 locomotives and 386 rail cars damaged or destroyed at Martinsburg, with the B&O water station and machine shops also destroyed and miles of telegraph wire removed by the time federal control was restored in March 1862). By the end of 1861, 23 B&O railroad bridges had been burned and of track were torn up or destroyed. Since Jackson cut the B&O main line into Washington for more than six months, the North Central and Pennsylvania Railroads profited from overflow traffic, even as many B&O trains stood idle in Baltimore. Garrett tried to use his government contacts to secure the needed protection, from Maryland Delegate
Reverdy Johnson to General
George McClellan and Treasury Secretary
Salmon P. Chase. As winter began, coal prices soared in Washington, even though the B&O in September arranged for free coal transport from its Cumberland, Maryland, terminal down the C&O Canal (which reduced prices somewhat, although Confederates also damaged the C&O canal that winter). Furthermore, western farmers could not get their produce to markets because of the B&O shutdown, only partially alleviated by the summer 1861 Union army victories at the
Battle of Philippi (West Virginia) and
Rich Mountain, and vigorous army and company work crews which reduced the main-line gap to 25 miles between Harpers Ferry and Back Creek. Finally at year end,
Samuel M. Felton, the PW&B President, wrote newspapers about the War Department's discrimination against his cooperating railroad line, which competed with Cameron's favored North Central and Pennsylvania Railroads. President Lincoln (familiar with railroad law since his days as an Illinois lawyer) in January 1862 replaced Cameron with Pennsylvania lawyer
Edwin M. Stanton, who had been serving as Cameron's legal advisor. Furthermore, on January 31, 1862, Congress passed the Railways and Telegraph Act of January 31, 1862, creating the
United States Military Railroad and allowing it to seize and operate any railroad or telegraph company's equipment, although Stanton and USMRR Superintendent
Daniel McCallum would take a "team of rivals" approach to railroad management and allow civilian operations to continue. In February 1862, Union forces recaptured Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry, and work crews continued replacing wrecked bridges and equipment, although
bushwhacker raids continued. Even then train movements were sporadic and subject to frequent stoppages, derailments, capture and attack. Prominent raids on the B&O railroad during this period were: • The
Great Train Raid of 1861, May 22 – June 23, 1861 • The
Romney Expedition, January 1 through January 24, 1862 • Operations during the
Maryland Campaign, September 8, 1862 • Various raids of Brigadier General
A. G. Jenkins, Fall, 1862 :
1863–1865 The second half of the Civil War was characterized by near-continuous raiding, which severely hampered the Union defense of Washington, D.C. Union forces and leaders often failed to properly secure the region, despite the B&O's vital importance to the Union cause. This military strategy, or lack thereof, allowed Confederate commanders to contribute significantly to the length of the war, by conducting free-ranging military operations against the region and railroad. Before the
Battle of Monocacy, B&O agents began reporting Confederate troop movements eleven days prior to the battle, and Garrett had their intelligence passed to authorities in the War Department and to Major General
Lew Wallace, who commanded the department responsible for defense of the area. As preparations for the battle progressed, the B&O provided transport for federal troops and munitions, and on two occasions Garrett was contacted directly by President
Abraham Lincoln for further information. Though Union forces lost this battle, the delay allowed
Ulysses S. Grant to successfully repel the Confederate attack on Washington at the
Battle of Fort Stevens two days later. After the battle, Lincoln paid tribute to Garrett as: • The
Jones-Imboden Raid, April 24 through May 22, 1863 • The
Catoctin Station Raid, June 17, 1863 • The
First Calico Raid, June 19, 1863 • The
B&O Raid on Duffield Station, January 1864 • The
McNeill Raid, May 5, 1864 • The
Second Calico Raid, July 3, 1864 • The
Battle of Monocacy, July 9, 1864 •
Gilmor's Raid, July 11, 1864 • The
Greenback Raid, by
Mosby's Rangers on October 14, 1864 • The
B&O Raid on Duffield Station II, January 1865 •
Gilmor's B&O Raid, February 1865 • The
B&O Derailment Raid, March 1865 The Confederate leaders who led these operations and specifically targeted the railroad included: • Lieutenant General Thomas J.
"Stonewall" Jackson and many units under his command • Lieutenant General
Jubal Anderson Early and many units under his command • Brigadier General
Turner Ashby and his "Black Horse" cavalry • Brigadier General
John D. Imboden and the
62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry (1st Partisan Rangers) • Brigadier General
Albert G. Jenkins and the
8th Virginia Cavalry • Brigadier General
William E. "Grumble" Jones and the "Laurel Brigade" • Colonel
John S. Mosby's "
Mosby's Rangers" • Major
Harry Gilmor's "Gilmor's Raiders" • Captain John H. McNeill's "
McNeill's Rangers" Bases of operation involved in raiding the B&O Railroad: •
Winchester, Virginia •
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Westward by merger A steel and stone bridge was built across the Ohio River between
Bellaire, Ohio, and Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1871, connecting the B&O to the
Central Ohio Railroad, which the B&O had leased starting in 1866. This provided a direct rail connection to
Columbus, Ohio, and the lease marked the beginning of a series of expansions to the west and north. Other railroads included in the B&O were: •
Northwestern Virginia Railroad from 1865 •
Winchester and Potomac Railroad and Winchester and Strasburg Railroad from 1867. This pair of lines connected with the B&O at
Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, and constituted the only significant B&O trackage in present-day Virginia. • Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad leased through the Central Ohio in 1869 •
Hempfield Railroad, bought on May 1, 1871. The company was reorganized as the Wheeling, Pittsburg, and Baltimore on May 3, 1871. The subsequent acquisition of the Pittsburgh Southern enabled a direct Pittsburgh to Wheeling connection. • Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad from 1871. This was the B&O entry into Pittsburgh, overcoming the denial of a Pennsylvania charter to the B&O. • Somerset and Cambria Railroad from 1879 • Buffalo Railroad from 1880 •
Pittsburgh Southern Railroad acquired 1883. Originally a
narrow-gauge railroad, it was converted to standard gauge and renamed the Baltimore & Ohio Short Line. • West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad from 1890 • Columbus and Cincinnati Midland Railroad leased through the Central Ohio in 1890 • Monongahela River Railroad from 1900 •
Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad from 1882. This was initially renamed the Cincinnati, Washington and Baltimore Railroad and then again to the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad in 1889. The B&OSW absorbed the
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1893, giving the B&O a connection to
St. Louis, Missouri, and finally the B&OSW disappeared into the rest of the system in 1900. , during strike in 1877 • Ohio River Railroad from 1901 • Pittsburgh Junction Railroad from 1902 •
Pittsburgh and Western Railroad from 1902. This was originally a
narrow-gauge system which was
standard gauged from 1883 to 1911. It formed the main B&O line west from Pittsburgh. The line passed the
Mars Train Station in
Mars, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh. •
Cleveland, Terminal and Valley Railway from 1895. This was the B&O's entry into
Cleveland, Ohio. • Cleveland, Lorain and Wheeling Railroad from 1909 • Chicago Terminal Transfer Company, reorganized in 1910 as the
Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad. This switching line was always operated as a separate company. • Salisbury Railroad near Pittsburgh, operated from 1912 •
Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad from 1912 •
Morgantown and Kingwood Railroad from 1920 •
Coal and Coke Railway from 1916 •
Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Western Railroad from 1927. This was originally part of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, and gave the B&O a connection to
Springfield, Illinois. •
Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway in 1932. This gave the B&O a line into New York state. •
Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad from 1932. Part of the line was severed from the rest of the system by flooding, and became part of the
Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Railroad in 1955. (This list omits certain short lines.) The
Chicago and Alton Railroad was purchased by the B&O in 1931 and renamed the
Alton Railroad. It was always operated separately and was eventually bought by the
Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad after receivership in 1942.
Great Railroad Strike of 1877 As a result of poor national economic conditions in the mid-1870s following the
Panic of 1873, the B&O attempted to reduce its workers' wages. After a second reduction in wages was announced in the same year, workers began the
Great Railroad Strike of 1877 on July 14 in
Martinsburg, West Virginia. Striking workers would not allow any of the trains, mainly freight trains, to roll until the third wage cut was revoked.
West Virginia Governor Henry M. Mathews sent in state militia units to restore train service but the soldiers refused to fire on the strikers. The strike spread to
Cumberland, and when
Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll attempted to put down the strike by sending the state militia from Baltimore,
riots broke out resulting in 11 deaths, the burning of parts of Camden station, and damage to several engines and cars. The next day workers in
Pittsburgh staged a
sympathy strike that was also met with an assault by the state militia; Pittsburgh then erupted into widespread rioting. The strike ended after federal troops and state militias restored order.
New lines in Maryland In 1866 the B&O began constructing the
Metropolitan Branch west out of Washington, which was completed in 1873 after years of erratic effort. Before this line was laid, rail traffic west of Washington had to travel first to Relay or Baltimore before joining the main line. The line cut a more or less straight line from Washington to
Point of Rocks, Maryland, with many grades and large bridges. Upon the opening of this line, through passenger traffic was rerouted through Washington, and the Old Main Line from Point of Rocks to Relay was reduced to secondary status as far as passenger service was concerned. The Washington to
Gaithersburg section of the Met Branch was double-tracked during 1886–1893. Rebuilding in the early 20th century and complete double-tracking of the branch by 1928 increased capacity; the "branches" became the
de facto mainline, though the Old Main Line was retained as a relief route. Meanwhile, the
Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) outmaneuvered the B&O to acquire the B&O's northern connection, the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, in the early 1880s, cutting off the B&O's access to
Philadelphia and
New York. The state of Maryland had stayed true to its implicit promise not to grant competing charters for the Baltimore/Washington line, but when a charter was granted in 1860 to build a line from Baltimore to
Pope's Creek in southern Maryland, lawyers for the Pennsylvania RR picked up on a clause in the unfulfilled charter allowing branches up to long, from any point and in any direction. The projected route, passing through what is now
Bowie, Maryland, could have a "branch" constructed that would allow service into Washington. The Pennsylvania picked up the charter through the agency of the
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and in 1872 service between Baltimore and Washington began. (
See Pope's Creek Subdivision.) At the same time, the PRR outmaneuvered the B&O and took control of the
Long Bridge across the Potomac River into Virginia, the B&O's connection to southern lines. in Baltimore In response, the B&O chartered the
Philadelphia Branch in Maryland and the
Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad in Delaware and Pennsylvania and built a parallel route, finished in 1886. The 10th president,
Charles F. Mayer, spearheaded the development of the
Baltimore Belt Line, which opened in 1895, and recruited engineer
Samuel Rea to design it. This belt line connected the main line to the Philadelphia Branch without the need for a
car ferry across the Patapsco River, but the cost of constructing the
Howard Street Tunnel drove the B&O to bankruptcy in 1896. Two other lines were built in attempts to reconnect to the south. The Alexandria Branch (now called the
Alexandria Extension) was built in 1874, starting from
Hyattsville, Maryland, and ending at a ferry operation at Shepherd's Landing. The ferry operation continued until 1901 when the trackage rights agreement concluded as part of the construction of
Washington Union Station saw the south end of the branch realigned to link to the PRR trackage in Anacostia, across the
Anacostia Railroad Bridge, into the
Virginia Avenue Tunnel, through
Southwest Washington, D.C., to
Potomac Yard in
Alexandria, Virginia. (
See RF&P Subdivision.) The Alexandria Branch trackage to Shepherd's Landing was heavily used during
World War II when traffic congestion on the
Long Bridge caused the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a bridge along the original plan of the B&O: Alexandria to Shepherd's Landing, Washington. Trains of empty
freight cars were routed north and south over the structure, which was demolished after the end of
World War II. Before either connection was made, however, another branch was built around the west side of Washington. During the 1880s the B&O had organised a group of bankrupt railroads in Virginia into the
Virginia Midland Railroad. The VM track ran from
Alexandria to
Danville, Virginia. The line projected west across the Potomac River was intended to cross the Potomac just north of the D.C. line, to continue southwest to a connection with the B&O-controlled Virginia Midland (VM) in
Fairfax (now
Fairfax Station, to distinguish it from what was
Fairfax Court House and is now the
City of Fairfax, Virginia), and if possible to a connection with the
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad in
Quantico. The branch was started in 1892 and reached
Chevy Chase, Maryland, the same year. Financial problems in both the VM and B&O forced a halt to construction and led to the B&O's loss of control of the VM. Following bankruptcy, and control by the Pennsylvania Railroad, by the time the line was completed in 1910 there was no longer any point to the river crossing. Thus, the renamed
Georgetown Branch came to serve a wide range of customers in Maryland and in
Georgetown, such as the
Potomac Electric Power Company, the
Washington Milling Company, and the U.S. government. The line cut directly across various creeks, and includes what was said to be the longest wood
trestle on the railroad over
Rock Creek; and a short tunnel,
Dalecarlia Tunnel, under the
Washington Aqueduct. The line was almost completely abandoned in 1986 by CSX and is presently used in part as the right-of-way for the
Capital Crescent Trail. After a flood damaged the C&O Canal in 1877, the B&O acquired a majority interest in the canal mainly to keep its property and right of way from potential use by the
Western Maryland Railroad.
The 20th century , 1906 Following its emergence from bankruptcy, control of the B&O was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1901, though the two kept separate corporate identities. A rising young PRR Vice President,
Leonor F. Loree, was appointed president. Loree shared the Pennsy management's belief in infrastructure and the B&O at that time needed some of that. New classes of engines were built to haul longer, heavier trains faster. The
Old Main Line was reworked, sections of the original right-of-way cut off by the straightening of curves and replacement of old, weight-restricted bridges with newer, heavier bridges. Most of Loree's work on the B&O physical plant remains evident today. Many iron and steel bridges on the railroad were replaced with stone (Pennsy preferred stone to the preference of the
Reading and
Lackawanna Railroad for concrete). With the adoption of anti-trust legislation in 1906, the relation between the two companies was severed. The railroad's passenger numbers were at a disadvantage with the railroad's major competitor in the northeast, the
Pennsylvania Railroad. That railroad had a tunnel into Manhattan, thus carrying passengers directly into
New York City. The B&O had no tunnel rights, and its New York City market trains actually terminated at the
Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal in
Jersey City. From Philadelphia to Jersey City the B&O traveled over
Reading Railroad tracks to Bound Brook and there joining
Central Railroad of New Jersey tracks to Jersey City. Passengers rode CNJ ferries or B&O busses to Manhattan. Suffering from its weaker market position from Baltimore to New York, the B&O discontinued all passenger service north of Baltimore on April 26, 1958. One day later, the railroad had declared itself fully dieselized. The
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway took financial control of the B&O in 1963. On May 1, 1971,
Amtrak had taken over all of the remaining non-commuter routes of the B&O. The B&O already had a controlling interest in the
Western Maryland Railway. In 1973 the three railroads were brought together under one corporate identity, the
Chessie System, although they continued to operate as separate railroads. In 1980 the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries, a holding company that owned the
Seaboard Coast Line, the
Louisville & Nashville, the
Clinchfield, and the
Georgia Railroad, agreed to form
CSX Corporation. SCL Industries was renamed the
Seaboard System Railroad (SBD) in 1983, the same year that the
Western Maryland Railway was completely absorbed into the B&O. SBD was renamed
CSX Transportation (CSX) in 1986. On April 30, 1987, the B&O's corporate existence ended when it was absorbed into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which merged into CSX Transportation on August 31 of that year. In railroading's golden age, the B&O was one of several trunk lines uniting the northeast quadrant of the United States into a wide industrial zone. It was the southern border as the
New York Central was the northern border. The Pennsylvania Railroad controlled the center, and smaller roads like the
Lackawanna,
Lehigh Valley, and the
Erie in the center surviving largely through the
Interstate Commerce Commission. The corners of this map are Baltimore in the southeast,
Boston in the northeast,
Chicago in the northwest, and
St. Louis in the southwest. == Named passenger trains ==