The B & O Railroad – circa 1910

Many people remember the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad only as one of the four railroads in the game, “Monopoly”.

Nevertheless, the B & O is the oldest railroad system in the US (beginning in 1830) and had a critical role in the nation’s development.

We may forget how competitive the eastern states were to develop commercial links to the rising population and industries of the regions to the west.

The Erie Canal (1825) in New York State linked the port of New York to the entire Great Lakes region.

Eager to protect and develop its own commercial advantages, Pennsylvania quickly followed suit with charters for canal systems and, soon thereafter, railroads.

(The Reading Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad were to become some of the largest corporations in the world.)

Merchants of Baltimore bet on the advantages of railroads and invested early in this new industry.

The emerging transport companies within states and between states fought one another bitterly for rights of way, charters, and contracts.

This postcard photograph was printed in Germany about 1910, as the nation was entering the golden age of railroad travel.

The postcard was not mailed.

Interestingly, it was the B & O railroad with its links to the west that reduced the connection of the western regions of Virginia to the plantation-dominated power in Richmond.

When the Civil War erupted, the state of West Virginia was created from those western regions of Virginia.