B & O rail road sites in Howard County 1857

"Ellicott's Mills, fourteen miles from Baltimore, covering the bottom and slopes of the steep hills with dwellings, and their tops with churches and other public edifices." From excerpt below. Click on images to enlarge.

B & O rail road and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in 1829

James Stuart (1775-1849) from Scotland, traveled in Maryland in 1829, and wrote about the canal, railway and the famed "Baltimore clipper" ships.

Although both had ground breaking ceremonies on the same day - July 4, 1828 - (B&O in Baltimore, C&O in Washington DC), the canal only reached Cumberland, MD and stopped because the train line progressed further and was more profitable.

The image, from the 1850s, at Point of Rocks, shows the rails on left, the canal, and the towpath on right.

1831 B & O railroad drawn by horse and wretched breakfast at Ellicott Mills

Thomas Hamilton (1789-1842) rode in "a wooden house or chamber...drawn by a horse at the rate of about four miles an hour."  After 3 hours he arrived in "Ellicot Mills" to a poor breakfast.