The financial history of the Baltimore and Ohio since the close of the nineteenth century is interesting chiefly in connection with changes in the control of the property

Yet, in 1850 nearly all the railroads in the United States lay east of the Mississippi River, and all of them, even when they were physically mere extensions of one another, were separately owned and separately managed.

Consequently many large railroad systems of heavy capitalization bid fair to run into difficulties on the first serious falling off in general business

The construction of extensive railways, however, and particularly the consolidation of small, experimental lines into large systems, dates from the days of the discovery of gold in California

The close relationship between railroad expansion and the genera development and prosperity of the country is nowhere brought more distinctly into relief than in connection with the construction of the Pacific railroads.

The railroad originally was as completely dissociated from steam propulsion as was the ship

As the contest proceeded, public interest increased and the entire country watched to see which company would win the big government subsidies through the mountains.

While no one railroad can completely duplicate another line, two or more may compete at particular points

Many of the railroad evils were inherent in the situation they were explained by the fact that both managers and public were dealing with a new agency whose laws they did not completely understand

Horses and mules, and even sail cars, made more rapid progress than did the earliest locomotive.

People began to understand that with the acquisition of California the nation had obtained practically half a continent, of which the future possibilities were almost unlimited, so far as the development of natural resources and the genera production of wealth were concerned.

In the United States three new methods of transportation made their appearance at almost the same time - the steamboat, the canal boat, and the rail car

With the reorganization of 1898 finished, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad entered a new period in its history.

The history of the Erie Railroad ever since 1901 has been a record of progress