It is quite fitting that the two bridge structures named for the layer of the cornerstone of the Carrollton Viaduct and for the man behind the B&O are still in use.
The Washington Monument for which Mr. Thomas contributed a large amount of money is in Baltimore; it was completed in 1829. I have not only seen it, I have climbed the steps inside it.
Johnny
DeggestyThe Washington Monument for which Mr. Thomas contributed a large amount of money is in Baltimore; it was completed in 1829.
It was the first monument to GW.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
greyhoundsapparently got into some peoples' cherished false beliefs.
I see, ....well Mr Greyhounds, isn't it true that you originated this thread by identifying the B&O as "the first large commercial railroad in the U.S."?
Isn't it true that you went on to describe the B&O as operating within an industry that was so new at the time that precedent was non existent? (These guys had to invent about everything. There was little, if any, prior experience. They had to figure out how to locate a rail line, what type of rails to use)
And wasn't it part of a passage you quoted that "was this the B&O's reward for spending $70,000 on the Frederick Branch and charging lower rates than any other U.S. railroad?"?
And, when called upon to qualify that claim with comparable rates from competing shippers, isn't it true that the nearest competitor you could identify was an entity hundreds of miles away that in no way connected with the farmers that are the subject of this story?
And isn't it also true that the ONLY reason that the rate charged by the B&O as was claimed by your source "lower than any other US railroad" was because there was no other US railroad capable of offering them comparable service ?
And isn't it just as true that the rates charged these farmers by the B&O were HIGHER than the rates any competing railroad could have charged for comparable service?
I withdraw my earlier comment that the premise suggested in your example was absurd. The self congratulatory claim identifying the rate B&O did charge as being lower than any other US railroad ...was actually specious and casuistic.
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