Part 4 of 4. The Tom Thumb proved that steam could work on the B&O, but that was only the beginning. The famous horse race, the search for better locomotives, the challenge of Parr’s Ridge, and a growing focus on speed, capacity and efficiency helped turn an experiment into a new way of running a railroad, and eventually, a legend.

On the 289th anniversary of Charles Carroll of Carrollton’s birth, his later birthday celebrations reveal a Founder who remained vigorous, curious, and engaged with America’s future well into his nineties.

Part 3 of 4. The decisive August 28, 1830 journey grew out of months of horse-powered excursions, short steam trials, repairs, and repeated demonstrations. Together, they show how the B&O Railroad learned what steam could do.

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