Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad or B&O was a 19th century railroad which operated in the east coast of the United States. The B&O was the the first railroad to offer commercial transportation of both people and freight. It was incorporated on February 28, 1827. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad[?] or C&O took control of the B&O in 1963, and incorporated it, along with the Western Maryland Railroad[?], into the Chessie System[?] in 1973. In 1980, the Chessie System merged with the Seaboard System[?] to create CSX[?]. Seven years later, 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.

Trivia

In the board game Monopoly, the B&O is one of the 4 railroad properties on the board; see: Monopoly game.

External Link

• B&O Railroad Historical Society (http://www.borhs.org/)
• B&O Railroad Photo Tours (http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/)