A report on Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and Western Maryland Railway

Western Maryland Rail Road Company gold bond, issued 1917

Pen Mar station c. 1878. The WM built Pen Mar Park as a mountain resort in 1877 and ran excursion trains from Baltimore. The park closed in 1943.

Canal boats waiting to be unloaded in Georgetown.

Low-angle bird's-eye view of central Washington toward the west and northwest with The Capitol in foreground. The Canal is visible running along the mall.

C&O Canal in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Williamsport on the C&O Canal was the WM's western terminus from 1873, and its principal source of coal traffic until the main line was extended to Cumberland in 1906

Boat construction yard in Cumberland, MD

Eckhart Junction in the Cumberland Narrows, 1970. The masonry arch bridge over Wills Creek was built by the Maryland Mining Company in 1860 as part of the Eckhart Branch Railroad. Beyond the masonry bridge is a viaduct for the State Line Branch

Map of Terminus in Cumberland in the mid 1890s. Yellow dots indicate modern highways as well as current (2013) location of Canal basin.

Register of waybills in the Cumberland Office, in 1858. Each canal boat had to have a waybill, even if empty, for passage through the canal. Fines were levied for lack of a waybill.

5 and 10 dollar notes, from C&O Canal company

Great Falls feeder culvert (no longer used) indicated by yellow arrow(14.08 mi), and Lock 18 (R).

An informal overflow. The towpath dips, allowing water to flow over it. Note the boards in the background for people to walk on.

Culvert #30 lets Muddy Branch under the canal

A steamboat on the C&O Canal. Note the steering wheel and the smokestack on this boat

Children tethered to canal boat. This photo was probably taken in one of the Cumberland basins.

Model interior of a C&O Canal freight boat

Recent view of the 9 mile level (between 33 and 34 miles) where the ghosts were reported to haunt.

Monocacy aqueduct in 2011, where the ghost of a robber could allegedly be seen on moonless nights

The WM built a connection from Hagerstown to Williamsport, in order to access coal traffic from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

- Western Maryland Railway

The inclined plane was dismantled after a major flood in 1889 when ownership of the canal transferred to the B&O Railroad, which operated the canal to prevent its right of way (particularly at Point of Rocks) from falling into the hands of the Western Maryland Railway.

- Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

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B&O's Columbian crossing the Potomac River at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, 1949

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

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The first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830.

Cornerstone of the B&O, laid July 4, 1828, by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, now displayed at the B&O Railroad Museum

Share of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-Road Company, issued 26. July 1856; signed by Johns Hopkins as president pro. tem.

Advertisement for the Baltimore and Ohio in an 1864 Baltimore city directory, promoting its repairs and reopening at one point during the war.

Table of Cumberland Coal shipped over B&O Railroad and C&O Canal, 1842–1865

Blockade of engines at Martinsburg, West Virginia, during strike in 1877

B&O headquarters building on North Charles Street in Baltimore

Replacement of retaining wall of B&O in Hazelwood, Pittsburgh, 1906

B&O roundhouse complex, Martinsburg, West Virginia.

The Ellicott City Station near Baltimore, the oldest passenger station in the U.S., is now a museum devoted the B&O's role in the Civil War.

Scenes of the B&O Railroad. Decorative title page for Ele Bowen, Rambles in the Path of the Steam-Horse, 1855

Twelve and a half cent note issued by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in 1841.

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad system map, circa 1961

The railroad faced competition from several existing and proposed enterprises, including the Albany-Schenectady Turnpike, built in 1797, the Erie Canal, which opened in 1825, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

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.