Customer Reviews

The Great Road: The Building of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Nation's First Railroad, 1828-1853

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The Baltimore and Ohio was the Nation's first serious extended railroad investment. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal which served New York City and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which would have connected Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Begun in 1828 and finished in 1853, it took 25 years to complete. Built at a time when national works, i.e., roads, canals and railroads, were the subject of much acrimonious debate within political circles as to which transportation form was best, it is a wonder it was ever completed.

The B & O is likely the most significant public / private enterprise in the history of North American transportation. It wasn't until late in the road's construction that steam locomotives were powerful enough to haul entire trains over the mountains. With this accomplishment the investing public and Congress began to understand that railroading's primary competition, canals, had been completely eclipsed as the low cost provider of mass transportation. Tied as canals were to water resources, railroads were not only cheaper but could run in any direction, shortening the distances required between points of origin and destination.

This is quite an interesting book. My only negative is that a disproportionate amount of time is spent on Boardroom brawls. While finance, control and management are always the primary concerns for any business, if you skim these extended discussions you have a great book. James Dilts' work is instructive about the politics of the time, the physical obstacles that had to be overcome, the technological evolution that made this engineering feat possible and the competition from alternative forms of transportation, all of which opened the country, connected the States and assured the free flow of our commerce.

Mr. Dilts has created a seminal, readable history on the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Baltimore to the Ohio River at Wheeling, (W)Va 1828-1852, the Nineteenth Century's version of the race to the moon. Some of the contractors and politicians are ones you'll meet with today in the news, just under different names, but the character stays the same.