Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, strike, Vinegar Hill, gondola cars - Randolph Brandt Latimer remembers

Randolph B. Latimer (1821-1903) began working at age 15 in the B & O Railroad engineering department, then started a store Randolph & Latimer and flour commission. His father ran a stage line between Baltimore and Washington city.

John H. B. Latrobe's "Fairy Knowe"

Overlooking his brother Benjamin Latrobe Jr.'s magnificent Thomas Viaduct (more on the B & O Railroad stone bridge HERE), and seen by the RR passengers, John H. B. Latrobe had a country house "Fairy Knowe" designed by Robert Carey Long Jr. who also designed Patapsco Institute and Mt. Ida.  Latrobe, son of the architect of the US Capitol, owned and designed a cottage, "Maryland Row", at White Sulpher Springs and was the lawyer for the B & O Railroad.  Below is a floor plan of #1 and Latrobe's description of #2 designed with John Niernsee...

B & O Railroad's Thomas Viaduct

This curved granite viaduct with eight arches was built in 1835.  Incredibly it is still being used... with modern heavy trains on the double tracks!  Designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Jr. (1806-78), the son of the architect of the US Capitol and Baltimore's Basilica, it was 612 feet long and cost over $142,000 or the equivalent of $3.8 million.  At the time it was called Latrobe's Folly, since it was so novel detractors thought it would fall down.