Port of Baltimore and The B & O Railroad: A Symbiotic Relationship

In the decades following the Civil War, the expansion of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad assist in making Baltimore the sixth largest seaport on earth. The Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad was started by George Brown and Phillip Thomas. The intention was to provide a more efficient and expedited method of transport people and goods to the Midwest in lieu of the Erie Canal. Baltimore is the westernmost seaport along the east coast, and Baltimore business leaders seized the opportunity to make the metro area and make it a commerce hub. Location for cargo distribution to the northeast, southeast, and west was at a greater advantage than other eastern seaports. By the turn of the twentieth century Baltimore was the second largest point of entry for European immigrants.

In 1867 The B&O Railroad signed an agreement with North German Lloyd Steamship Line allowing immigrants a one way ticket to the port of entry in Baltimore, and then take them west on the train. The additional benefit is that the ship would return to Europe with Maryland tobacco and lumber. Numbers of immigrants coming through the port of Baltimore and using the B&O rail grew exponentially in the decades from 1850-1880.

(Stolarik, Mark M. and Dean R. Esslinger. Forgotten Doors: the Other Ports of Entry to the United States. New Jersey. Associated University Press, Inc. 1988)

(both images courtesy of http://freepages.genealogy. rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ~gnatowski/baltimore/town/home.htm)