B & O Railroad 1832 - barracks

Charles Joseph Latrobe (1801-1875) an English traveler and future Governor of Australia described sites in Maryland - point of rocks, and "gigantic undertakings" like the railroad.

"This was a visit to the point of rocks on the Potomac, and the village of Harper-s Ferry, at the junction of that river with another offspring of the wooded Allegheny, the Shenandoah, which, in the upper part of its course, waters the lovely valley of Virginia. The celebrated rail-road, planned with an object of forming a junction with the waters of the Chesapeake and the Ohio, had then already been carried as far as the Potomac, upwards of seventy miles from the city of Baltimore, and in the first part of its course up the varied and beautiful glen of the Patapsco, presents scenes of great and peculiar beauty.

The spirit with which such gigantic undertakings are conceived, the millions for their prosecution furnished, and the immense works which they render necessary, carried forward by private companies, often without even the assistance of a loan from the State Government, is worthy of great admiration. None is more so than that displayed in the prosecution of the rail-road in question, which is conducted by bridges, viaducts of massive granite, deep excavations, embankments of great extent and height, for seven miles to the entrance of the more confined valley of the Patapsco, through which it subsequently winds, following the curvature of the precipitous and rocky hills on both sides for many miles, till it reaches the dividing-ridge between the waters of that river, and the tributaries of the Potomac. Here, forty miles from the city, you ascend the first inclined plane, of which there are two on each side, and over which you are conducted by a stationary engine. Fourteen miles from the western slope of the planes, the rail-road traverses the Monocacy valley, and a few miles further you see the forested ridges of the Catoctin mountains, and the broad stream of the Potomac opening before you.

At the time we made this excursion, the traffic and the arrangements on this newly-constructed work were in their infancy, a few rude barracks put up here and there in close proximity to the forest, were but slender indications of the changes about to be effected along its line ; but long before we quitted the country, a large village with hotels and warehouses had sprung up at the Point of Rocks; the traffic upon the railroad was incessant; locomotive engines took the place of horse-power; and hamlets sprung up along its line. The natural resources of the country began to be available; the inexhaustible stores of the finest granite, iron-ore, and breccia, which lay on its very path were conveyed to the city; roads sprung up to communicate with it, and it was gradually advancing into the recesses of the Allegheny, side by side with a canal commenced at the city of Washington, with the same ulterior object."

Latrobe, Charles Joseph.  The Rambler in North America: 1832-1833, Vol. 1.  London: 1835 

©2019 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD