Historical Events

On July 1, 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act. The law authorized the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, a project that would link the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean and reshape the future of the United States.

How one Maryland founder connected the Declaration of Independence to the dawn of the American railroad age.

Before there was a county, there was a railroad The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) was created in 1827 as Baltimore’s strategic answer to the new transportation economy forming around The National Road, canals, and western trade. The idea was simple but bold: build an all-weather, high-capacity railroad from the port of Baltimore to the Ohio Valley and the interior markets beyond. Decades before Garrett County existed as a political unit, the B&O was already building the phy

Project Preview Backgrounder Some historic distances matter not because they are long, but because they change what becomes possible. The first 13 miles of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad were such a distance. Between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills, this short line helped demonstrate that the railroad could be more than a bold idea, a public curiosity, a canal alternative, or an experimental machine. Here, in a corridor already shaped by water, stone, labor, and trade, rail beg

Some moments in railroad history are well known. Others survive only in fragments. A famous date may still be remembered. A place may still exist. A newspaper account may hint at what happened. An engraving may offer a partial view. A report may record a fact without preserving the full meaning of the moment. And sometimes, the landscape itself is the last witness. Historical texts and illustrations are important sources of input when restoring or reconstructing historical