Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 Excerpt: ... Towns and villages have sprung up along the line of railroad, and even those sections but remotely connected with the road have felt its wonderful influence. A spirit of enterprise has grown up in neighboring districts; roads and turn-pikes have been opened, and vast stretches of country that might have remained primeval forests but for this great work of internal improvement, have become productive and the inhabitants cultivated and refined. The extension of the road from Oentreton on the Lake Erie Division to Chicago gives the Baltimore and Ohio one continuous line of rail road from Baltimore to the Lake City of the West, the granary where is received the exhaustless products of the fertile plains which stretch out through the northwest. Thus Baltimore is enabled to compete with the great cities of the East for a share of this immense trade. The extension of the road from Pittsburg to Centreton, a mere question of time, will give another direct route from Chicago to Baltimore. The scenery along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Eailway is picturesque and beautiful, but portions of the road merit special notice. "Harper's Ferry," the point at which the peaceful waters of the Shenandoah become lost in the more boisterous Potomac, has been described by Jefferson as "one of the most stupendous scenes in nature, and well worth a voyage across the Atlantic to witness." Jefferson's Kock, named after that illustrious statesman, a great overhanging cliff which looks frowningly down as though it would topple headlong upon the unwary traveler, offers an exhaustive view of the wonderful passage of these two rivers through the very heart of the mountains. The road from this point to the Ohio Kiver gives to the sight-seer a succession of views emb...