wo ^ » ~;r«>. ^^0^ f ^^ ^^^ ari passu, with the growth of the city in the development of new railroad enter- prises, have secured for the railroad proper, as well as for the mercantile community, large accretions of wealth; but a question naturally arises at this juncture, when the cap stone, (to speak figuratively,) is shortly about to be placed on the scheme and sys- tem of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, by the com- pletion of its new line from Centreton on the Lake Erie Division, to Chicago ; and when other railroad lines such as the Baltimore and Potomac, Northern Central and Western Maryland are re- quiring terminal accommodations at tide-water for a rapidly in- creasing coal trade and general traffic, whether the necessary facilities for handling such a large accretion of traffic, as will be coincident to the growth of the West and the proper development of local business, can be furnished either at Locust Point, the present tide-water terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, or at Canton where it was anticipated, (although such anticipations have, In consequence of prohibitory rates, not yet been realized,) that the tide-water business of the Northern Central and AYestern Maryland Railroads would be concentrated. It is the object of 8 INTRODUCTION. this present pamphlet to show, and it is hoped conchisively, that other provisions must be speedily made for accommodating the prospective traffic of Baltimore and for developing its various industries. Should the population and commerce of the city in- crease in the same ratio during the present, as in the past decade, or should an additional stimulus be given to the manufacturing industries, as is now indicated by an evident appreciation of the geographical advantages of Baltimore in all sections of the coun- try, the existing terminal facilities of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company would not be adequate to their requirements, and they would be compelled to seek additional outlets to deep water contiguous to their main line of road where the handling of produce, general merchandise and coal traffic could be conducted economically and expeditiously. The various reasons why a loca- tion at Curtis' Bay on the property of The Patapsco Land Company would be advisable for the railroad, commercial and manufacturing interests are herewith given ; and, in connection with the map appended to the pamphlet should convince the capi- talists of Baltimore, that the elaborate scheme of improvements now contemplated by the company owning the property is destined to attract a large increase of capital to Baltimore, to build up its commercial supremacy, and enable it to compete on more than equal terms with the rival cities of Boston, New York and Phila- delphia ; in fact, the new town of Pennington, to be erected on the Curtis' Bay property, is in all probability destined to become for Baltimore what Brooklyn, Jersey City and Hoboken have been to New York City. That these facts have been fully appreciated by some of the leading business men of the city, is evidenced by the fact that the property now about to be improved and adapted for a port, has been held by its present owners for nearly a quarter of a century ; it has been held for such a term of years with a firm confidence that its merits as a shipping point would be ultimately appreciated, and that, by retaining its control, they would be in- strumental in developing the geographical advantages of which nature had made them the possessors, and in which their fellow-' citizens were so deeply interested, as enabling them to carry out' well conceived plans for the commercial preeminence of Baltimore. INTRODUCTION. 9 To render the comprehension of the value of this property per- fectly intelligible, it is proposed to allude in detail to the following subjects : (1.) Baltimoee, its early foundation, growth and present condi- tion. (2.) Advantages of location for commercial and manufactur- ing purposes. (3.) Situation of harbor. (4.) Railroad connections. (5.) Present terminal facilities. (6.) Difficulties in the way of further development at existing termini. (7.) Curtis' Bay: its advantages as a port and as a manu- facturing centre. (8.) Present plan of The Patapsco Land Company of Baltimore City, for developing their property. 10 BALTIMORE — ITS EARLY FOUNDATION, (I.) BALTIMORE— ITS EAELY FOUNDATION, GROWTH AND PRESENT CONDITION. The town of Baltimore, with sixty acres of ground, was founded in 1729, on the north side of the Patapsco, and was named after Lord Baltimore, to whom the State of Maryland was originally granted in 1633. The country had, however, been previously dis- covered by a Captain John Smith, in 1606, and there was a popu- lation in Maryland, about 1659, amounting according to the most reliable returns, to more than 12,000. Tobacco was the great product of the province at that early date, and the ancient chroni- cles assert that a hundred sail of ships a year from the West Indies and from England, traded in this article, Avhich to use the phrase- ology of that period, was the source of a very large revenue to the English crown, at a vast expense, industry and hazard to the Lord of Baltimore. In 1706, an act was passed creating "Whetstone," now better known as Locust Point, a town ; but no definite pro- gress towards definitely locating the town appears to have been made under the provisions of this act, and in 1729, efforts were made to found a city on the property which looks in on Spring Gardens, then owned by a Mr. John Moale, a merchant from Devonshire, but the project was strenuously opposed by him through the belief that his property w^as rich in iron ore, and he had sufficient influence with the Legislature, of which he was a member, to defeat the plan. From these causes the original founders of Baltimore were compelled, against their own wishes, to abandon the level land, and seek a location for their embryo city, under the hills and amid the marshes of the north-western branch, where Charles and Daniel Carroll had agreed to sell certain property amounting to about sixty acres. In 1745, Jones Town was incorporated with the city of Baltimore, under the latter's corporate name, and in 1747, a then unoccupied portion of land, about eighteen acres, lying between Baltimore and Jones Town was absorbed into the municipality. Twenty-two years after GROAVTH AND PRESENT CONDITION. 11 Baltimore had been incorporated, viz: in 1751, the commercial re- qaireraents of the city had increased so rapidly that the erection of a market house and town hall was deemed advisable. The war between the English and French in the few succeeding years had a tendency to increase the population of the town of Baltimore proper by inducing the inhabitants of the State to remain in the older settlements, and not penetrate into the sparsely settled in- terior where they were subject to annoyances and attacks from the hostile forces, and more especially from the Indians. In 1776, the population of Baltimore received considerable accessions from the refugees from Nova Scotia, and there was a perceptible grow^th in the city developments and in its manufacturing industries. Ship yards were established at what was then known as Fell's Point, and a large trade for the then infant province was carried on more especially in tobacco, but in lesser proportion in wheat, lumber, corn, flour, pig and bar iron, skins and furs. The ex- ports of tobacco alone from Maryland to England, were estimated in 1763, to be about 28,000 hogsheads annually, valued at .£140,000, and the greater proportion of this trade paid tribute directly and indirectly to the mercantile enterprise of Baltimore. Nothing indicates more clearly the general prosperity of the province and its rapid development in thirty years after the foun- dation of Baltimore, than the increase of population during that period. In 1733, (according to returns given by Mr. George E. Howard,) the taxable population, (including males above the age of sixteen, and all negro and mulatto femdes,) numbered 31,470. Fifteen years afterwards the entire population was 130,000, (94,000 whites and 36,000 blacks.) In 1756, it had increased to 154,188, (107,963 whites and 46,225 blacks.) In 1761, it amounted to 161,307, (114,332 whites and 46,975 blacks.) It is not within the province of this pamphlet to trace the various steps by which the ill-advised homo government attempted by restrictive legislation and prohibitory measures, to stifle the growth of manu- factures in the province of Maryland, and thereby render one of her colonies dependent on England for all its trade in manu- factured articles; nor to show how the formation of a mercantile marine was stopped by restricting the trade of the province to English ports^ and insisting that such trade should be only carried 12 BALTIMORE — ITS EARLY FOUNDATION, in English bottoms. It is irrelevant also to show how this pro- tective and prohibitory system crushed out any spirit of servile adulation and compromise which might have resulted from a , temperate recognition of just claims by the then British adminis- tration. These and kindred topics have been ably and success- fully handled by historians of the past and present, suffice it to say that the very action which was taken to repress independence only added fuel to the fire, it developed in the early settlers of this country an energy of character and a spirit of honest reliance and manly virtue, which handed down to posterity and cherished as valuable heir looms, bid fair unless the temper and disposition of succeeding generations are warped by an excess of prosperity to make the United States in social and mental characteristics as it is in the publicly and varied character of its resources, the first country in the workl. An active and independent population thrown on its own resources soon adapts itself to the new situation of affairs; h^nce, it is not surprising to find that in 1778, factories and mills for the manufacture of linen, woolen goods, nails, paper and iron were at work in Baltimore; fast sailing traders were built and a considerable traffic was carried on by them during the Ilevolutionary war with the West Indies ; in fact, even under what would have appeared to most people, very unfavorable auspices, the commerce of the town of Baltimore increased so rapidly that in 1780 a custom house was established, and merchants were re- lieved from the annoyance and inconvenience attendant on entering and clearing their vessels at the port of Annapolis as had been formerly customary. A fresh stimulus was given to the commercial enterprise and activity of Baltimore by the French revolution and the protracted war resulting therefrom, which devastated the continent of Europe, and by the interruption of agricultural pursuits, caused a greater demand for American wheat and flour. The colonial dependen- cies also of the various conflicting powers were forced, by being cut off from Iheir home connections, to open up trade with a neu- tral, and America profited immensely by becoming a market for the sale of produce, and for the purchase of necessary supplies. It was at this time,, more especially from 1790 to 1801, and again from 1803 to 1812, that Baltimore became the recognized entrepot . GROWTH AND PRESENT CONDITION. 13 for traffic between the West Indies and all ports of Europe, and, notwithstanding the heavy risk incurred in blockade running, ves- sels built on the Chesapeake were uniformly successful in evading the cruisers of every blockading squadron, and in transacting a remunerative business. Nor were the growth and prosperity of Baltimore fostered merely by a foreign carrying trade — emigration had commenced to flow slowly but steadily towards the West, and it was found that the geography of the country plainly indicated Baltimore to be the original and natural terminus of internal American trade on the Atlantic seaboard. Hence we find that, even at that early date, a considerable traffic was carried on witli the embryo settlements on the navigable waters of the West. It is true that this traffic was carried on at, what will seem to us at the present day, considerable disadvantage, and there was great delay in transportation, but the pack horses of the revolutionary period were quickly superseded by the cumbrous six or eight horse covered wagon, the narrow and circuitous paths along which the pack trains moved along in single file were supplanted by the substantial turnpike, and the old " Braddock's Road" will be in succeeding generations as suggestive a memento of the commercial enterprise of Maryland and her merchants as the canals and rail- roads. It may be appropriately noted here, that in ]796 — sixty- seven years after its original foundation — the town of Baltimore was elevated to the dignity of a city, and a charter of incorpora- tion, under the name of the " Mayor and City Council of Balti- more," was granted by the State Legislature. The statistics of the United States census at this time furnish data relative to the growth of the city, which may be interesting. In 1790 the population was 13,603 ; in 1800, 31,514, and in 1810, 46,555, an increase of nearly 350 per cent. A temporary check was given to the devel- opment of the city of Baltimore, by the war with England, from 1812 to 1814; also, by the establishment of peace throughout Europe in 1815 and a withdrawal to the ships of the various trans-Atlantic nationalities of the traffic which had been carried for some time in American bottoms ; still, there was a continued increasing demand, during several years, for American wheat and other produce, while new traffic with South America, and more especially with the newly established empire of Brazil, compen- 14 BALTIMOEE — ITS EAELY FOUNDATION, sated for any diversions of business into other channels. It could not be expected that Baltimore should have been exempted from the disastrous financial complications resulting from the establishment of the United States Bank, — complications which culminated in 1819, and which involved many enterprising mercantile firms and individual subscribers in utter ruin and penury. It was also disastrously affected by the panics of ]837 and 1857, and its com- merce, which had thriven immensely under exceptional causes, from 1790 to 1815, did not show a corresponding increase in the forty-five years immediately subsequent to the pacification of Europe ; but still, there was a steady and permanent growth, and the population which, in 1820, was 62,738, had risen, in 1860, to 212,418, as will be seen from the following returns of the United States census : Year. State of Maryland. County of Baltimore. City of Baltimore. aS20 298,269 90,201 02,738 1830 399,455 120,870 80,625 1840 501,793 134,379 102,313 1850 583,034 210,040 109,054 1860 687,049 266,553 212,418 It might be well, before proceeding further in the history of the growth of Baltimore, to note that in the forty-five years ending 1860, alluded to above, her name is prominently associated with three of the most important improvements of the present century. Baltimore was the first city in America, according to the most reliable records, which was lit with gas — viz: in 1816. The citi- zens of Baltimore were, in 1827, the first to inaugurate a system of railroads for the transportation of passengers and general mer- chandise, while, seventeen years later, in 1844, it was between Baltimore and Washington that the first electric telegraph, not merely in America, but in the world, was erected. Had the city, during that period of nearly half a century, inscribed nothing else on her chart of progress and material development than these three isolated facts, she would be justly entitled to the gratitude of civi- lized America and the panegyrics of millions. A severe, although temporary check to the growth of Balti- more resulted from the civil war, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. Traffic with the South was entirely suspended; industries on which GROWTH AXD PRESENT CONDITION. 15 the inhabitants had been entirely dependent were paralyzed, and commercial relations Avith the West were interrupted and par- . tially diverted to other cities. It is not our province to criticise the causes which brought about this civil war, nor the attitude which was assumed by the majority of the inhabitants of Mary- land at the time of a most eventful crisis in the nation's history ; suffice it to say, that great allowance should in every case be made for early education,- sympathy and associations. If the people of Baltimore erred in their understanding and interpretation of that great contest; if they leaned more to the Confederate than the Federal cause, it must be candidly admitted that such errors (if they were errors) were conscientious and in accordance with their interpretation of right and duty — the convictions on which their actions were based were honest — the proclivities which influenced them were deep-seated and meritorious ; and the records of both con- tending armies show how many noble spirits sealed their faith, to write figuratively, with their life-blood, — how the fervor and manly courage of their ancestors, as recorded on many a battle-field during the Revolutionary war, had been indelibly impressed on the scions of a succeeding generation. There is no doubt that Baltimore suffered very severely from the frontier position which was occupied by the State of Maryland, and that although her soil was on but two occasions the field of battle between the armies of the Korth and South, still a general tone of depression and demoralization was engendered by the continued presence of troops within her territories, and by the continued suspicion of sympathy with the South to which the citizens were unfortunately subjected; but during this period of forced commercial inactivity, except in 30 far as Government contracts were concerned, plans were being matured for developing the trade and commerce of the city; new avenues of traffic were sketched out; — the business of the West might have been temporarily diverted, but it had not been irre- vocably lost; — the South might be temporarily paralyzed, but its recuperative energy was still on a par with that of other sections of the American continent, and until it regained in happier times its normal condition of prosperity and affluence there was a large possible European commerce to be built up ; — the local resources of the city and State were to be developed, and a fresh impetus might 16 BALTIMORE — ITS EARLY FOUNDATION, be given, by a correct representation of geographical advantages, to the investment of foreign capital and to the immigration of skilled labor. The plans thus matured have not proved chimeri- cal ; — already the tide is turning in favor of Baltimore, the grana- ries of the West are pouring their riches along the well-developed arteries of transportation into the elevators erected by the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad Company at Locust Point; other pro- ducts of the Mississippi Valley and the great North-west respond to the facilities furnished and converge to Baltimore, while the fleet of German and English steamers constantly plying between this and European ports testifies that the ideas which induced the founders of Baltimore town to prophesy its commercial supremacy were by no means exaggerated, and that the natural geographical laws of location remain immutable. The following statistics indicate very clearly the truth of these statements : 1800. 1870. 1871. 1872. Imports at the Port of Baltimore...., ..$9,784,773 S2!, 017,313 $20,770,181 $29,429,439 Exports of Domestic Merchandise. .. 8,084,606 12,396,518 18,236,160 17,381,591 The census returns for 1 870 show that the industrial products of the city and county of Baltimore amounted to the sum of $59,219,993, in which was employed a capital of $26,040,040. The population of the city proper had increased from 212,418 in 1860, to 267,569 in 1870, and a school census, taken in October, 1873, proves that it has now risen to 319,000. The assessed value of property at the time of taking the census in 1870 was $237,806,530, and its real value $401,634,738; the tonnage of the port was at the same time 150,086, and the city debt $13,568,431, or at the rate of about $51 per capita of population. And yet Baltimore is in its comparative infancy, the commer- cial growth of the past eight years merely indicates its capabilities for further development when its superior advantages of economi- cal transportation are more thoroughly known and appreciated by the producers of the West and by the consumers of the East; when it becomes, as in former years, the trading mart of the South, and when all sectional diiFerences have been obliterated by the inter- change of progressive ideas and by a growing similarity of iu« terest. GROWTH AND PRESENT CONDITION. 17 More weight will perhaps be attached to these brief remarks on the growth and present condition of Baltimore, when it is known bj the reader that they emanate from one who is not identified with the city, but who has been compelled, in the course of his professional duties and literary avocations, to study carefully, and it is hoped impartially, the relative merits of different cities in the Union, now engaged in a healthy competition for commercial supremacy and prestige. Those who are blinded by the preju- dices of early education and associations with certain localities, may fail to recognize the geographical fact that Baltimore is NEAREST the North, nearest^ the South, nearest the AVest, in fact, so central on the seaboard as to be nearest all classes of industry and of production. They may attempt to ignore the fact that it is nearest the manufacturer of the North, the i)roducer of the West, the cotton planter of the South and the purchasers of Europe and the West Indies or South America ; they may claim that the capital or influence of other States and cities can divert traffic from its ordinary geographical short lines of transportation into more circuitous routes, but any correct and truthful not dls- torted map will show them that Baltimore is the natural, not arti- ficial, depot of internal traffic, and that the trunk line, with which its history is so closely identified, is, at any rate for the present, the shortest and MOST direct avenue of communication between the West and the Atlantic seaboard, thence to Europe. The merchants and public men of Baltimore will be strangely recreant to the princi- ples which animated their forefathers, if they fail to avail themselves of their present vantage ground, and do not anticipate the com- mercial requirements of their city. The solid men should come to the front. The press, of whatever shade of politics, should be a unit in laboring for the development of Baltimore and its com- mercial and manufacturing importance, and provision should be made at once to accommodate an import and export trade amount- ing, within the next five years, to more than eighty million dol- lars, annually, in the aggregate. Allusion has now been made to Baltimore, its early founda- tion, growth and present condition; it has been shown, and it is hoped satisfactorily, that few, if any, cities of the Union can show a similar percentage of increase in population, manufactures and 2 18 BALTIMOEE — ITS EARLY FOUNDATION, &C. commercial and industrial resources as Baltimore : but it would be wrong to leave this topic without mentioning briefly other than geographical advantages which Baltimore possesses for attracting population and consequently wealth. Prominent among these advantages may be mentioned the climate, which, as the city is situated about the centre of the Atlantic coast, is not subject to the intense cold of Northern latitudes, nor to the tropical eccentricities of the more Southern States; in brief, it is equable, balmy and healthy, while the location of the city, on a succession of hills rising gradually from the harbor, prevents in a very marked manner the occurrence of those mephitic and miasmatic vapors to which other cities not so advantageously located are subject. In addition, Baltimore is naturally well drained and sewered; a heavy rain must carry off all the impurities of the streets, and in the absence of such rain there is enough water available for city purposes to compensate for any irregularity of nature. Again, apart from the climate, which is all that could be desired by even the most fastidious, and apart from the easy and moderate rentals which must tend to build up the population of Baltimore, there is its Public School system which in providing the best means of education, strengthens the moral influence of the city and educates the rising generation, not merely in the habits of the past, but in those ideas of the future which should be coexistent with its growth to man's estate. BALTIMORE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION, &C. 19 (II.) BALTIMORE— ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOR COMMERCIAL AND MANUFACTURING PUR- POSES. Prior to the outbreak of the rebellion, the commerce of Balti- more "was much less developed than now. It is true that even then the Baltimore clippers had a world-wide renown, and were constantly employed in the trade to Havana and other South American ports. It is true that in the sale and manufacture of tobacco, as well as in the packing of oysters, fruits, vegetables, &c., the '^Monumental City" had acquired an enviable repu- tation. A large trade also was transacted with the merchants of the South, and indirectly with the section of country lying West of the Alleghanies ; but no systematic efforts were made to render Baltimore a commercial metropolis and a centre to which the traffic of all the Southern cities and the ^yest, as well as Europe, should radiate, until 1866, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company determined to complete the policy consistently pursued by its former managers, and by developing its Western connections ; also, by the erection of elevators and the establish- ment of a steamship line between Baltimore and Europe, inaugu- rate a new era in the history of the commercial metropolis of Mary- land. All these movements, however, would have been unavailing had not nature furnished, in the geographical location of the city, advantages which could not be ignored for commercial and manu- facturing purposes. Situate near the Chesapeake bay, on the Patapsco river, with a climate unsurpassed for salubrity, with a hygienic record superior to that of any other large city in the United States, with abundant capital available for the develop- ment of all legitimate enterprises, and with a population equally allied in sentiment and consanguinity with the Northern and Southern States, Baltimore could not be backward in progress and material development; — she was forced to recognize the claims which nature made on the enterprise and perseverance of her citi- 20 BALTIMORE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOR zens, and to labor in the creation and perpetuation of a brilliant and j)rosperous future. The truth of these remarks will be readily recognized by reference to the map of the United States, where it will be seen that Baltimore is the most accessible port for Peters- burg, Norfolk, Richmond, Wilmington, IST. C, Charleston, Savan- nah, Key West, Havana, New Orleans and Galveston. Regular lines of steamers are now in successful operation to the ports above mentioned, while a large traffic is carried on by canal and ocean to Philadelphia, New York, Providence and Boston. It is not, how- ever, merely by her water facilities that Baltimore can claim the palm for superior geographical location. Had she been dependent on tliese alone, without possessing short-rail lino advantages, com- mercial preeminence would have been in every respect a failure; in fact, the economies of distance, from the recognized centres of trade in favor of Baltimore, as compared with New York, are so thoroughly recognized by the Federal Government that $300,000 was appro- priated by Congress in 1871 and 1872, with great unanin^ity, for deepening the channel, and $65,000 for supplying range lights of the most improved description for the approaches to the harbor of Baltimore. The comparative economies of distances alluded to will be apparent from the following table : Comparative Distances to Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia. FROM PITTSBURG, PA., To Baltimore via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , 327 milea. " New York via Pennsylvania Railroad 431 " " Philadelphia via Pennsylvania Railroad Sot " Difference in favor of Baltimore as arainst New York 104 miles. " " " ' " " Philadelphia 27 " FROM CINCINNATI, OHIO, To Baltimore, via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 589 miles, /•via New York Central Railroad 883 " " New York, J via Erie Railway 801 " (.via Pennsylvania 741 " " Philadelphia, via Pennsylvania Railroad C67 " Difference in favor of Baltimore as against average distance to New Yoik... 240 miles. " " " " " distance to Philadelphia 78 " COMMEECIAL AND MANUFACTUEIXG PURPOSES. 21 FROM LOUISVILLE, KY., To Baltimore, via Baltimore find Ohio Railroad COGiriilesi /■via New York Central Railroad 0S9 " '' Kew Y"ork,-| via Erie Railway 9S7 ■' tvia Pennsylvania Railroad S51 " " Philadelphia, via Pennsylvania Railroad 7T-1 " Difference in favor of Baltimore as against average distance to New Y'ork... 246 miles. " " " " " distance to Philadelphia 78 " FROM CHICAGO, ILL., To Baltimore, via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 795 miles. /•via New York Central Railroad 980 " " NewY'ork,< via Eric Railway 961 " ( via Pennsylvania Railroad S99 " " Philadelphia, via Pennsylvania Railroad 833 " Difference in favor of Baltimore as against average distance to New York... 132 miles. " " " " " distance to Philadelphia 18 " FROM ST. LOUIS, MO., To Baltimore, via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 929 miles. /-via Now York Central Railroad 1167 " " New York,-! via Eric Railway 1201 " (.via Pennsylvania Railroad 1050 " *' Philadelphia, via Pennsylvania Railroad 973 " Diflerence in favor of Baltimore as agains-t average distance to New York... 210 miles. " '• " " " distance to Philadelphia 44 " From all points south of Baltimore the distance in favor of Baltimore is 200 miles. "With these short line advantages in its favor over one of the recognized grand Trunk lines of the country, with the lumber, coal and general traffic of Pennsylvania and Western New York converging to it over the line of the Northern Central Railway, with the almost inexhaustible coal supplies of the Cumberland Basin tributary to the Western Maryland Rail- road, brought even now to the city limits, and with the large prospective business of the South, transported over the Baltimore and Potomac and Washington Branch Railroads, the city of Balti- more has, undeniably, advantages of location for commercial pro- gress and development; advantages, which can only be limited by the ability of its capitalists and business-men to appreciate fully the situation and further the march of progressive improvement by temperate and well advised investments. It may be appropriately noted in this connection, that during the ten years ending September 30th, 1873, the Through Tonnage of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad increased from 166,118 tons, 22 BALTIMORE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOR to 640,205 tons, or very nearly 400 per cent,; also, tliat during^the four years ending September, 30th, 1873, the through as distinct from local tonnage showed an increase of more tlian 220 per cent., viz: from 286,835 tons in year ending September 30th, 1870, to 640,265 tons in fiscal year ending September 30th, 1873. The following statement is also indicative of the business growth of the city, and its rapid commercial development : Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 1872. 1S73. Increase. Through Merchandise East and West Tons, 557,009 640,205 82,05G Corn and other Cereals Bushels, 0,049,430 7,510,657 1,401,227 Barrels of Flour 757,842 940,027 182,785 Live Stock .Tons, 72,031 87,000 15,02!) The coal traffic increased during the same period 358,459 tons, amounting to 2,019,718 tons in fiscal year ending September 30th, 1873, as against 1,661,259 tons in 1872; and, while from excep- tional causes there was a decrease in the lumber traffic for 1873 of 5,161 tons as compared with the previous year, still the tonnage from that source was 9,292 tons in excess of year ending Sen- tember 30th, 1871. Attention might also be drawn to the fact, that the only existing drawback to the commerce of Baltimore, viz : the danger of navi- gation round Cape Charles will shortly be obviated by the con- struction of the " Maryland and Delaware Ship Canal," across the peninsula of the states of Maryland and Delaware uniting the waters of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. The company which proposes to construct this canal was chartered by the Gene- ral Assembly of the State of Maryland in April, 1872, and by the Legislature of the State of Delaware in March, 1873. The capital stock authorized by the Maryland charter is $ 2,000,000, with power to increase to $4,000,000 in case the authorized issue of $4,000,000 six per cent, bonds does not prove sufficient to com- plete the canal. One route has been surveyed for this new canal called the "Sassafras Route," and the distance from the point where the navigation of the Sassafras river ends, to the mouth of Blackbird Creek on Delaware Bay is seventeen miles. The head- waters of the Sassafras river and Blackbird creek meet in the centre of the peninsula, and formerly the tides flowed within three miles of each other and it seems the natural course for a ship COMMERCIAL AND MAXUFACTUEING PURPOSES. 23 canal ; but there is some diversity of opinion relative to the res- pective merits of the Sassafras and Chester rivers in connection with an outlet to Chesapeake Bay, and pending that decision work ]ias not been yet commenced. The advantage of this ship canal as now projected cannot be over estimated, in view of the fact that it lessens the distance by water communication from Baltimore to all the northern and eastern and European ports about 225 miles ; in addition to avoiding the dangerous navigation around Cape Charles, alluded to above. Commerce will naturally be attracted to the point w^here capital exists and where there is cheap trans- portation. Of the presence of capital in Baltimore, and of its more equal distribution among the community there than in any mercantile city of the same class there can be no doubt, and if, by the construction of this ship canal, coal, iron, lumber, lime, to- bacco and flour, which constitute extensive shipments can be shipped to New York at ninety cents less per ton than by the old Chesapeake and Delaware canal, which is circuitous in its route, is worked by horses and is subject to detention by locks, the commerce of Baltimore will be considerably aggrandized. Allu- sion has been made to the fact that commerce will naturally be attracted to the point where capital exists and where there is cheap transportation; justice to the j)ublic-spi riled individuals who have fully appreciated the correct geographical position of Baltimore as a commercial centre, demands that we should notice in this connec- tion some elements of superiority over New York which cannot be ignored ; and in mentioning New York, we do so on the ground that it has been erroneously assumed to be the grand objective point for all foreign business. In New York, steamers arriving from Europe are subjected to heavy port charges, in addition to a large annual rental for wharves ; freight destined for inland points has to be carted from the steamship pier to the receiving depot of the railroad on which the consignee is located ; otherwise, if there is any delay in passing it through the custom house, it is mercilessly consigned to some bonded warehouse, and after protracted delay, with numerous charges affixed, reaches its destination. Again, emigrants arriving at New York are sent to Castle Garden from Ho- boken, Jersey City or whatever pier the European steamer is docked at ; they are exposed for some days in the majority of instances to 24 BALTIMOEE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOR the machinations of boarding house runners, and the wily tricks of soi-disant emigrant agents, and finally after having learnt by costly experience the attractions of the " Empire City" they are forwarded to the railway stations from Avhich they take the cars for the West. At Baltimore, however, the case is very different, there is no cartage of goods destined for the West, steamers come into port immediately alongside the piers and warehouses, erected by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and the only ex- pense of transfer is the movement from the ship to the railroad car over a platform of about 40 feet. This reduces the cost of handling to a minimum, and the fact is so thoroughly appreciated by the Western and Southern merchants, that while the gold coin duties in 1866 amounted to but little more than $4,000,000, they were upwards of $10,000,000, in 1873. Again look at the emi- grant. Landing at the commodious piers alluded to, either from the North-German Lloyds' or Allan Steamers, he finds in a place secluded from all danger and annoyance a bureau-du-change, where English or German coin and notes can be exchanged for current funds, his baggage is passed by the custom house, and he takes the cars on the pier at the side of the steamer and is forwarded with- out cost and delay to such point in the West or JS[orth-west, as he may select. Accurate enquiry into the merits of the system pur- sued by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company indicates that the advantages offered are duly appreciated. There are instances where steamers have recently come in with more than 800 emi- grants, and each one realizing the comforts and conveniences of a port where he has been so well treated, becomes a living advertiser for the place where he first received such favorable impressions, he naturally indicates his preference for Baltimore as the objective jioint for all immigration from the "Faderland" or the "Ould Counthry." As an illustration of the progress which the foreign commerce of the port of Baltimore has made during the past eight years under these auspices, it may be noted that at the close of the war, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company purchased from the government of the United States four steamships named re- spectively, Alleghany, Carroll, Somerset and Worcester. These vessels were found to have too limited a carrying capacity to insure remunerative returns and they were discontinued in 1870, but COMMERCIAL AND MANUFACTUEIXG PURPOSES. 25 prior to their discontinuance in 1868, a contract had been entered into with the North German Lloyds' Line to establish a regular line between Baltimore, Southampton and Bremen. The two first built were named the "Baltimore" and the "Berlin," and ex- perience demonstrated that the business was ample and remunera- tive from the inauguration of the interprise, in fact during the two succeeding years the accretions of traffic were so much in excess of ^their anticipations that in 1870, two splendid new steamers the "Leipsic" and the "Ohio" were added to the fleet, and this in- crease has been further supplemented since that date, that two additional new steamships, viz: the "Braunschweig" and the "jSTurnberg" each of 3,000 tons burthen, and furnished with all the modern improvements, have been placed in the weekly line between Baltimore and Bremen via Southampton. The Liverpool steamship owners have also been sagacious enough to recognize the importance of the commerce which converges to Baltimore, and the Managers of the Allan Line, after a brief (and it is believed unsatisfactory) experiment of Norfolk as a shipping point have within the past two years placed nine large and first-class steamers on the route between Baltimore and Liverpool. Definite impor- tance has thus been attached to the commerce of Baltimore, its geographical advantages for controlling the import and export trade of a large section of the United States, have been unequivo- cally demonstrated, and its merchants will be strangely recreant to the principles and aspirations by which they have been hitherto animated unless they make still further developments and attract to their city a traffic which will keep a fleet of at least thirty steamers constantly occupied. These suggestions are not chimerical because if results have been attained during eight years similar to what have been alluded to above with Western and South-western connections imperfectly and inadequately developed and with the most prolific portion of oiir common country, paralyzed by the prostration inci- dent to the war and the reconstruction policy of the Federal Gov- ernment, Avhat may reasonably be anticipated when the South returns to its normal condition of prosperity and affluence, when its merchants and planters may be found congregating as of old to the marts at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, and when through the opening and successful operation of the Baltimore, Pittsburg 26 BALTIMORE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOR and Chicago Railroad, Baltimore can for the first time demand without let or hindrance, and by an independent line entirely under its own control, a fair and impartial representation in the produce markets of Chicago and the North-west. Special allusion is made to this point, because in all appearances an entire revolu- tion will be produced in the carrying trade between the North- west and the Atlantic seaboard by the completion of the new line to Chicago. Its cost will not be one-half that of other roads with which it comes into competition and a lower rate of freight coinci- dent Avith a reduced cost of construction must be the means of diverting to Baltimore much traffic which has hitherto been di- rectly tributary to New York, Philadelphia or Boston. Another commercial advantage of Baltimore in connection with its Euro- pean line of steamers is the cheapness of fuel. The coal from the Cumberland basin is pronounced superior for steaming purposes, to any except the South Wales coal, and of that only one seam is we are creditably informed, superior. The supply of coal in England is found to be annually diminishing, and its prices are effected by exceptional causes, more especially by the eccentricities of miner's unions, &c,, hence it is almost regarded as certain, that within a few years if not sooner, America will furnish for the European steamers, the West Indies and South America much of the fuel which has heretofore been derived from trans-Atlantic ports. In this however we may have formed premature conclusions and would only state the simple fact that if a steamer sailing from Baltimore to Europe uses 800 tons of coal on the voyage, her managers will save by coaling at that point as compared with New York or Philadelphia, $24,000 or ^4800 per annum. In these days of exaggerated and abnormal competition for ocean freights, and when all the steamship lines formerly embraced in what was known as the North-Atlantic conference are claiming that their expenses are very largely in excess of receipts, this item of cheap and reliable fuel is one that cannot be disregarded, it is one which must eventually influence other steamship lines to make Baltimore their permanent port. Much more might be written on this point and it might be shown, how the commerce between the United States and South America could with proper manage- ment be almost entirely concentrated at Baltimore, in fact a large COMMERCIAL AJSTD MANUFACTUEIXG PURPOSES. 27 proportion of tho coffee shipments from Brazil for the West now pass through Baltimore, and the traffic originating in the valley of the Amazon, in Bolivia, the Argentine Eepublic and the United 'States of Columbia must find its readiest and economical market there ; but enough arguments have been adduced to convince oven the most skepti»*al that the seaport situated at the head of the Chesapeake, the boldest indentation on the Atlantic, with advan- tages of distances, lower port charges and more economical transpor- tation facilities must attract the attention and intelligent action, which its location demands. Years may elapse before all that the anticipations formed as to the commercial future of Baltimore are fully realized, but farmers, merchants, manufacturers, laborers and mechanics are now studying economy, they are anxiously looking over the net results, and as a consequence they will aban- don ports where the cost of handling and transferring freight are simply extravagant and exorbitant and they will avail themselves of advantages and commercial facilities which cannot fail to add to their financial permanence and stability. The city of Baltimore is also admirably situated for manufactur- ing purposes, and here it may be stated that manufactures flourish in a locality where there are cheap fuel, abundance of water, cheap rents and a cheap market for all the necessaries — not the luxuries of life. It is a well known fact that the water power on which the manufacturers of the Eastern States heretofore relied, has, during the past decade, failed to a very great extent, hence they have been compelled in the majority of instances to use steam as a reliable motor, and the necessary fuel has been procured at considerable expense from Philadelphia, Baltimore and I^ew York. The prices of coal procured from Philadelphia and New York have constantly fluctuated, hence manufacturers have always had an uncertain basis to work on, the value of their productions was always contingent, and the actual profit of their business could only be roughly esti- mated in advance. The disadvantages of such a condition of affairs, will be readily appreciated by those who are conversant with the competition of manufacturers, and with the small margin on which they operate. A rise of ^1.00 or 75 cts. per ton in the price of fuel, seriously interferes with small profits ; and hence it is not extraordinary that young and enterprising capitalists from 28 BALTIMORE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOR all sections of the country have selected Baltimore and its suburbs as a profitable place for investments, and have been attracted thither by the allurements of cheap rent and cheap fuel. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company with their usual sagacity recognized this fact, and the annually increasing consumption of eoal, indicates that their efforts in the direction of a low and uni- form rate on coal transportation have been successful, and that their consistent policy to advance the prosperity of Baltimore, has not been unrewarded. The following remarks are found in the annual report for fiscal year ending Sept. 30th, 1872. "The establishment and maintenance of low and uniform rates, enabling consumers to rely upon their supplies being furnished throughout the year at prices which will not be affected by changes in the charge for transportation continue to cause a general and large demand. The tariff of the Baltimore and Ohio Road for coal, has continued summer and winter without alteration, for nearly five years. The company has uniformly declined to enter into any combinations to obtain advanced rates, and proposes to continue this liberal and useful policy.'' It would not be surprising if Bal- timore were to become within a few years, the chief manufacturing point for all the cotton produced on the Atlantic seaboard, and that through economy of operating, she was able to compete suc- cessfully, if not outrival these older established New England cities, with which the manufacture of domestics has hitherto been a specialty. Cheap rents also enter conjointly with cheap fuel into the calculations of the manufacturer and the operative; and here from her geographical location and the large extent of country embraced within her limits, Baltimore can hold out advantages superior to those of any other large city. The manufacturer, the mechanic, and the artizan, can each procure the location which they want, at a very moderate ground rent, extending over a long term of years; and as a natural result the city is populated by a thrifty, industrious laboring class, while its manufactories assume a charac- ter of stability and pernaancnce which are rarely found wherever the ground on which the buildings are erected is not owned in fee simple. The report of the Canton Company for year ending March 31st, 1874, substantiates very clearly the statements made on this point, indicating that even at that distance from the heart COMMERCIAL AND MAXUFACTUKING PURPOSES. 29 of the city, and in a time when all manufacturing industries were suffering from a depression incident to the panic of October, 1873, they lease'.l on ground rents, and mostly in small lots, property whose ground rent if capitalised, would be equal to more than $320,000. Reference to the map accompanying this pamphlet, and to whicli the reader is referred as shewing accurately all the country within a radius of fifteen miles from the city of Baltimore, will prove that there is abundant water supply for all the manu- factories which now exist or which hereafter may be erected in the city proper or in its vicinity. A cheap market was also assumed to be one of the attractions for a manufacturing population, and in this respect, Baltimore is candidly admitted to be superior to either Kew York or Philadelphia. Allusion is made here to the neces- saries, not the luxuries of life. The following list of market rates as prevalent in the three cities above mentioned is herewith ap- pended, as indicating very clearly the correctness of this position : List of Market Eates at New York, Philadelphia AND Baltimore. Character of Article. Porter House Steaks fSirloin Steaks Round Steaks Rib Koast of Beef.... Corned Beef Roast Veal Veal Cutlets Roast Mutton Mutton Chops Roast Pork Pork Steaks Corned Pork Breakfast Bacon Butter Eggs Chickens Potatoes Sweet Potatoes Onions Pumpkins Turnips Tomatoes Cauliflowers - Apples = Grrapes Halibut J/ard Flour At New York. October 17th, 1874. 35 cts. per lb. 20 to 28 cts. per lb. 22 cts. per lb. 2(j cts. per lb. 12 to Hi cts. per lb. 20 to 22 cts. per lb. 35 cts. per lb. 18 to 20 cts. per lb. 25 cts. per lb. 14 cts. per lb. 11 cts. per Dj. 11 cts. per lb. 10 cts. per lb. 38 to 50 cts. per lb. 373-^ CIS. per dozpn. 20 to 20 cts. per lb. 50 cts. per peck. 80 CIS. per peck. 80 Cts. per peck. 40 to CO Cts. ea(!h. ,50 cts. per peek. 40 cts. per peck. 35 to 45 cts. per head 50 cts. per peek. 5 to 10 cts. per lb. 18 to 20 cts. per lb. 17 cts. per lb. §b to $0.75 per bbl. At Philadelphia. October 17th, 1874. 25 to 30 cts. per I b. 25 tfO 30 cts. per lb. 20 CIS. per lb. 20 to 25 cts. per lb. 18 cts. per lb. 16 cts. per lb. 20 to 25 cts. per lb. IC to 18 cts. per lb, 10 to 20 ct.s. per lb. 15 to 10 cts. per lb. 15 to 10 cts. per lb. 10 cts. per lb. IG cts. per lb. 40 to GO cts. per ;*o. 30 cts. per doz, 18 to 20 eta. per lb. Sl.40 per bushel. 81.50 per bushel. 60 cts. per peck. 40 to CO cts. each. 75 cts. per bushel. 75 cts. 2 peck bask't. 30 to 40 cts. per head 60 cts. per peck. 5 to 10 cts. per lb. 16 cts. per lb. 12 to 10 cts. per lb. §C to $7 per bbl. At Baltimore. October 15th, 1874. 25 cts. per lb. 20 cts. per lb. 10 cts. per lb. 18 to 20 cts. pcrRi. 10 to 12ct.«. perlb. 15 cts. per lb. 20 cts. per lb. 15 cts. per lb. 15 to 18 cts. per lb. 15 cts. per lb. 15 cts. per lb. 15 cts. per lb. 16 cts. per lb. 30 to 35 cts. per lb. 28 to 30 cts. per doz. $3 to So per ctoz. 30 to 40 Cts. per peck 40 Cts, per peek. 50 cts. to $1 per peck. 20 to 30 cts. each. 40 cts. per peck. 30 cts. per peck. 25 to 40 cts. per head 25 to 40 cts. per peck. 5 to 10 cts. per lb. 20 cts. per lb. 10 els. per lb. H to $0 per bbl. 30 BALTIMORE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOR Some idea of the manufactures of Maryland and their varied character may be formed from the following Table of Statistics, compiled from the U. S. Census Eeturns of 1870, which show that out of products amounting in the aggregate to $76,593,613, ),219,933 were credited to Baltimore County and City : Character of Manufacture. -^ . tZ 05 wi ^-E O o5 CI. C-- g ^ W 1 35 34 20> 3 14 2 8 6 UG 3 25 'A 3 1 12 4 16 1 2 1 3 Gl!) 1,329 lo 33 10 12i 3 40 812 3,228 4 28 28 309 5 13G 159 488 73 2,05 L 11 218 4 31 21 77 191 8:^0 - 20 50 3 48 133 681 2 76 3 75 5 G3 3 6 323 7,453 8 55 4 29 30 66 [■i-> 279 88 ?45 1 127 I 7 7 30 7 46 2 Ifi 1 2 1 3 22 2,800 1 14 5 8 G 11 4 64 1 75 7 35 1 5 15 126 3 8 518 1,101 19 1,985 137 1,134 o Acid — Sulphuric Agricultural Implements Awnings and IVnts Babbitt — metal and solder Bags — paper and others Banners, Flags, &c Bark— ground Baskets Belting and Hose, (leather,)....,. Billiard Tables, &c , Bliicking Blacksmi thing Blea,676 255,435 765914 1,220.399 256.963 1,191,515 18.5,7.«4 277,938 1.5,513 29,000 108,943 164,405 1,025 667 1,699,50-2 26,755 40,507 16,000 40,000 219,132 067,157 47,700 79,500 19,300 75,480 22.400 78,000 2,000 4,100 3,785,993 5,970 713 546,171 647,389 312,570 360,535 21,825 6t,09i) 475,704 733,431 415.037 873,782 1,098,655 1,016.500 6,000 10,000 20,701 52,()25 24,802 44,645 15,.574 27.99(5 450 1,700 1,000 1 ,500 3,409,426 4,852,8 8 13,086 24,392 245 3,550 3,720 13.40 1 60,520 137,851 104,386 187,400 7,080 33,600 3,600 7,000 522,886 G32 352 500 6,000 5,828,471 6,780,4.59 1,028,818 1,.587,230 .572,778 1.309,488 COMMEECIAL AND MAXUFACTURIKG PDEPOSES. 31 TABLE OF STATISTICS— Continued. Chaeactze of JIaxufactuee. Fwrs — dressed . Gas. Gilding Glass — cut, stained and window Gloves and Wittens Glue Gold Leaf and Foil Grease and Tallow _ Gunsmithing Hair Work Hardware Hats and Caps Heatins; Apparatus Hoop Skirts and Corsets Hosiery Hubs, Spokes, Felloes, Shafts, Ac... Husks — prepared Instruments — Profes'l & Scientific Iron — forged and rolled " Bolts, Nuts, Washers " Eailing, wrought " pigs • " ca-!tings, not speeined " Stoves, Heaters, Hollow ware Japanned Ware Jewelry Kaolia'and ground earth Kindling Wood Lasts J^ead — Shot Leather — tanned " curried " Morocco, tanned, 4c.» " dressed skins Lightning Rods Lime Liquors — distilled " malt Locksmith ing,&c Looking GlassandPicture Frames. Lumber — planed " sawed Machinery, (not specified.) " Steam Engines, Ac Malt Marble and Stone Work, general " Monument3& Tombstones.. Masonry — brick andetone Matches Meat^ — Pork, packed Meters — Gas Milliner}' Millstones Millwri^htine Mineraland Soda Waters Molasses and Syrup, (principally Sorghums ) Molasses Sugar — refined Musical Instruments and Materials (not snecified.) ^ets— Fish and Seine Oars 36 427 4 145 68 1 12 6 19 19 31 5-1 48 32 3 17 2 37 1,444 16 19 859 C32 G3 7 46 3 15 2 12 2SI 163 84 19 3 150 G3 208 47 108 151 1,24.5 34.3 341 f.4 ]35 274 1(17 105 8 68,500 1.820,000 300 145,700 6,4.^0 500 3,200 17;o00 5,250 11,100 8,000 16,000 125,000 6,600 100 6,100 9,450 32.800 983,000 28,W0 4,500 2,005.000 736,635 47,500 900 52,950 5. 1 '00 15,500 400 42,000 792,430 238,145 64.000 25,550 1,075 106.150 220.700 683,500 7.8 48.300 241.800 1,0.55.600 372.700 435,666 145.666 148:227 228.250 11,960 20,000 125 000 50,000 18.275 23.4f0 1,400 23,300 3,!>no 958,000 594,000 100 3,800 ^ i 8,470 276,294 1,184 109,600 2,750 425 3,964 2,350 7,216 3,700 12,437 13,082 30,063 5,350 3,700 730 12,600 709,922 5.500 4,700 255,941 189,305 26,.500 1.350 25,082 900 5,950 2,550 94,180 53.131 39 200 9,400 375 48,505 30.228 103^644 12.750 38,470 62,068 259,551 17-5,744 174,-527 20,7S0 57.830 126.467 23,990 16,000 14.000 11,000 6,S54 11,557 2,200 6,071 1,895 198,551 'E o s -o o $ 31.630 $ 65,500 374.750 1,027,165 2,800 5.300 88,300 246,400 7,978 15,300 750 12.980 21,000 44,210 51,000 2.300 16,200 11.700 24,25'» 9,786 38.717 29,502 57,26(5 83,000 137,211 23,800 43,170 780 1,000 7,750 14,900 2,210 4.920 5,420 30.750 1,309.315 3,573,312 40.800 65,(KX> 6,-3-25 16,000 1,286,881 2,143,080 416,648 835.024 36.722 93,070 1,900 4.200 36,500 82,70(> 5.000 e.orwi 16,315 28,500 250 2.100 69,715 62 Soi 926,406 1^65,388 494,075 623,308 74,880 163,000 21.500 Zd,00(f 1,280 6,000 90,499 234,199 381.236 889,261 510.492 665.74:} 8,224 33,700 58.310 133,750 320.632 474.857 674.858 1,501,471 323.646 681 391 182,730 373,475 298,428 3;}9,500 73,451 168,999 143.896 375.597 91,868 151,410 34.000 110,000 626.2CI0 695.000 15,000 45,000 27,455 6t,719 14.701 35.530 5.4.50 10.7.->0 8,178 34,380 4.050 8.230 6,394,569 7,007,857 316,570 674.600 750 2.0 i) 9.620 16.130 32 BALTIMOEE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOR TABLE OF STATISTICS— Co7itinued. Ceakacteb 01' Mandfacture. Oils — Vegetable, (not specified,) Oysters and Fish— canned Painting Paints— (not specified,) " lead and zinc Paper — (not specified,) " Printing " ■ Wrapping Paperhanging Patent Medicines and Compounds.. Patterns and Models Pencils and Pens— Gold Photographs Pipes— Tobacco Plaster — ground Plastering Plated Ware Plumbing and Gasfitting Pocket Books Printing and Publishing— (not spe- cified,) Printing and Publishing— Job Pumps Roofing Materials Saddlery and Harness Safes, Doors and Vaults— Fire-Proof. Sails Sash, Doors and Blinds Saws Scales and Balances Sewing Machines Ship Building, Bepairing and Ship Materials Showcases Silver Ware...., Small Beer Soap and Candles Soapstone Goods Stereotyping and Electrotyping Stone and Earthen Ware Sumac — ground, Tin, Copper and Sheet Iron Ware... Tobacco and Cigars "- Chewing, Smoking and Snuffing Tobacco— Cigars Toys 'I'runks, Valises and Satchels Trusses, Bandages and Supporters. Type Founding Umbrellas and Canes Upholstery Vinegar Watch and Clock Repairing Wheelwrighting Whips and Canes V illow Ware and Rustic Ornam'ts.. Wire Work Wood Brackets.Mouldings &Scrolls " turned and carved "Wool-Carding and Cloth-Dressing... Woolen Goods 2 61) 3 2 12 12 (i 14 2 1 28 2 12 4 27 4 40 27 10 2 135 1 7 17 3 31 2 4 1 13 1 1 21 1 183 13 269 1 13 3 1 5 13 4 40 257 3 10 G 4 (i 4 28 43 1,531 181 41 C9 9 206 C3 36 97 6 2 95 24 12 45 26 163 7 665 2.':0 51 23 420 13 37 262 14 8 12 313 10 43 6 99 24 10 109 8 950 7 340 1,034 11 76 5 16 10 68 13 86 522 40 99 122 127 76 19 309 $ 145 000 553,300 23,450 65,000 375,000 5,500 1,121,800 78,700 48,500 201,350 900 500 83,825 2,100 13,950 9,380 20,800 113,700 1,500 826,800 181,350 24,125 65,000 207,385 20,000 15,000 282,425 4,000 22,000 1,405 172,600 4 500 82,300 10,000 230,050 100,000 6,000 105,690 15,000 663,500 4,500 496,400 409,100 5,000 45,250 1,450 25,000 4,000 100,650 21,200 32,775 115,735 14,000 9,350 28,200 169,000 20,000 6,500 198,945 i 18,900 256,719 57,314 20,000 44,500 4,000 86,110 20,413 12.984 27,333 1,900 150 27,711 9,080 1,973 15,528 9,015 66,006 1,000 404,305 101,947 11,602 14,000 109,800 9,000 12,153 149,014 3,116 3,250 4,500 116,836 3,736 32,400 3,000 38,392 11,000 3,200 57,401 4,100 318,742 3,230 82,040 304,502 1,200 27,228 100 7,500 1,820 23,515 3,072 22,781 69,809 13,000 10,050 20,120 77,411 34,170 2,280 79,739 $371,400 922,402 70,004 300 000 405,148 16,725 445,498 43,208 41,838 131,850 360 600 25,770 2,774 11,788 20,060 10,700 232,806 1,400 334,550 165,048 19 39 1 44 237 267,007 6,000 48 821 214,284 4,u92 30 .535 1,350 120,723 10,800 25 940 000 315 972 10.075 6.747 32,871 15.2;"0 901,901 2,505 251,911 409,803 2,000 65,084 1,013 1,780 3,000 71,395 73,810 8,487 00.151 28,200 2(') 058 57,500 50,500 5,700 20,100 214,309 i 478.125 1,418,200 191.435 3S7..50I)- 640,000 32,910 823.000 92,800 65,784 282,250 3,950 1,500 125,981 18,900 18,300 50,450 28.500 408,107 4.400 1,179, 391. 47, 80, 639 35 76 419 12 68 7 928 ,621 ,803 ,853 ,033 ,000 ,827 ,500 ,000 000 300 357,404 18,300 68,000 14,000 521,4:i9 20.150 10,000 143,114 20,400 1,634 009 9,503 653,700 1,108,988 5,000 114,100 5,2.50 12,000 10,701) 139,401) 89,001) 66,48.-1 311,.5.Sl 55,1011 48,4.")ll 113.100 154,580 75,882 38,:uo 390,036 COMMERCIAL AND MANUFACTURING PURPOSES. 33 From, the statistics above given, and which are the latest offi- cially published, it will be readily seen that Baltimore does not possess one, but many sources of manufacture ; prominent among these may be noted : (/.) The Oyster, Fruit and Vegetable packing, in -which are em- ployed more than 25,000 people distributed among one hundred or more establishments. As an indication of the magnitude of this traffic it may be noted that during the season, 50,000 cans of raw oysters are put up daily by a single house, and 30,000 cans of cooked oysters by another. During the time when oysters are not in season, the hands are employed in canning fruit and vegetables to be shipped to Europe and the western markets. Large lime kilns are in many instances owned by the packing establishments, and it is stated that one firm alone burns 20,000 bushels into lime every four days ; also, that the manufacture of 600,000 bushels of lime in a year, does not dispose of the accumulations, and the re- moval of a large quantity has to be paid for annually. (^.) Whiskey. The Maryland whiskey generally, and more especially that produced in the city of Baltimore and its vicinity, has, for years past, gained an enviable reputation and is in exten- sive demand throughout the South, also in the Eastern and New England states. This whiskey is made out of pure rye, and the capital invested in its manufacture amounts to $3,000,000 ; but the profits resulting from the business are large, and a considerable increase of trade may be reasonably anticipated in the future. (3.) Grain. Baltimore has always been from the first years of its existence as a town, the grain market of this section, and du- ring the Peninsular war large quantities were annually shipped to Spain and other European ports. Great care has always been taken in the manufacture of flour at this point, and it has always commanded a high price in the West Indian and other tropical markets. An unusual stimulus has been given to the grain and flour trade since the close of the civil war, by the construction of elevators and by economical transportation to Europe. These facilities will, in all probability, be further increased as the North- west appreciates more fully the advantages of Baltimore as a ship- ping point. It may be noted that a very rigid inspection of all grain and corn shipped from Baltimore is practised under the 3 34 BALTIMORE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOE auspices of the Corn and Flour Exchange, hence cargoes shipped from this port maintain a deservedly high reputation. The census returns for 1870, which have doubtless been subsequently increased about 25 per cent., indicate that in the State of Maryland there were at that time 518 flouring and grist mills, cmployiug 1,101 hands, with a capital invested of $2,790,700 and with products amounting in the aggregate to $6,786,459. (4-) Shoe and Leather Trade. The manufacture and sale of shoes and leather in Baltimore is very large, amounting in some years to more than $18,000,000. The traflic in these articles was formerly confined to New England and Philadelphia, but during late years the trade of Baltimore with the South in these articles has increased beyond all expectations ; and from present appear- ances the shoe trade must become one of its leading industries. (-5.) Cotton. The census returns for 1870 show that cotton manufactures are rapidly becoming a specialty in Baltimore. The greater portion of the cotton now brought to this port is produced in North and South Carolina, but the goods manufactured out of cotton, although amounting in value to nearly $5,000,000, form but a small proportion of the aggregate cotton shipments, which are increasing annually from all sections of the country in conse- quence of the increased facilities for railroad transportation and the advantages offered to brokers, by the establishment of the " Balti- more Cotton Warehouse Company." There is apparently no rea- son why Baltimore should not become one of the leading cotton markets of the world ; and it is certain that cheap rents and cheap fuel will eventually attract much New England capital ; in fact, Baltimore must become a strong and in all probability successful rival of Fall River, Lowell and other well-known New England manufacturing centres. At present the cotton mills of Baltimore are more particularly interested in the manufacture of " Cotton Duck." [6.) Iron. The importance of this trade cannot be ignored, and it ranks high among the specialties of Baltimore. There are rolling mills, furnaces, etc., in which nearly one million and a half dollars have been invested, and the products of which, according . to the last census returns, amounted to nearly $3,000,000. A large increase in this business however, has taken place within the COMMERCIAL, AXD MAXUFACTUEING PFEPOSES. 35 past three jears ; aud the facilities for procuring iron ore, cheap fuel and an abundant water supply are evidently appreciated. It may be noted in this connection, that rails or plates* manufactured by the Abbott Iron Company have a national reputation, and the further development of similar first class industries will be co-incident with the gradual extension and growth of the city. In connection with this subject of iron manufacture it may bo appropriately noted that the construction of iron bridges is carried on extensively in Baltimore by the " Baltimore Bridge Company/' and by the "Patapsco Bridge and Iron Works." The last named company has executed considerable work in Cuba and Mexico, also in North Carolina at Wilmington; while the former has attained a world-wide reputation by the construction of the Rock Island Bridge across the Mississippi ; of the St. Charles Bridge across the Missouri River, on the line of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railroad, and of the Varrugas Viaduct for the Lima and Oroya Railroad in Peru, 252 feet high. The superior quality of the iron manufactured in Baltimore, gives these com- panies unusual facilities for executing large contracts, and a large force of laborers is constantly employed. [7.) Petroleum. The trade in this article at Baltimore, and the establishment of refineries, is increasing rapidly, but not in a ratio corresponding to the facilities which can be furnished for its manu- facture and export. It is claimed that the Baltimore refineries could furnish oil cheaper than those of Philadelphia, did no dis- crimination exist against the first named city, in the transportation of the crude article from the Pennsylvania Oil Wells. The fol- lowing statistics indicate the growth of the business for two years: Eccdpls of Crude and Refined Oil. 1872. 1873. Increase. Per Northern Central Railway 93,397 bbls 180,590 bbls 87,193 " Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 53.977 " 60,396 " 12,419 Total 147,374 " 246,956 " 99,612 The capacity of the refineries in Baltimore, is 475,000 barrels annually; and this capacity could be increased indefinitely, pro- vided that an independent line were constructed from Hagerstown, on the Western Maryland Railroad, to the coal oil regions of Penn- sylvania. During the year 1873^ twenty-nine cargoes cleared from 36 BALTIMORE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOE Baltimore for foreign ports, composed in the aggregate of 54,464 barrels refined ; 11,951 barrels lubricating and 5,268 barrels nap- tha, making the total exports, 71,683 barrels, equal to 3,189,850 gallons, which, with the crude oil added, make the aggregate of foreign shipments 3,470,955 gallons, against 1,972,258 gallons in 1872. Within six years the trade in petroleum has increased more than 350 per cent., viz : from 988,236 gallons in 1869, to 3,470,995 in 1873. Succeeding annual reports will in all proba- bility show a still further percentage of increase. {8.) Bricks. Although when the first brick house, contiguous to Baltimore, was built, the bricks were imported from England ; the inhabitants of the city soon discovered the value of the clay in its vicinity for manufacturing bricks of a very superior quality. Large sums of money amounting at this date to nearly $1,000,000, are invested in the business. More than 2,000 laborers are constantly employed, and 25,000 tons of coal, together with 2,000 cords of wood are consumed in brick production. Among the different kinds of brick manufactured here, the Baltimore pressed brick stands preeminent, and its superiority is so thoroughly recognized that it is shipped extensively to all the seaport towns lying south of Baltimore, and also largely to New England and Boston. In the neighborhood of the city a superior fire brick clay is found, and also clay which is adapted for stoneware, pottery and terra cotta ware. The pottery branch of this trade requires further development and the introduction of additional capital; because there is no reason why the manufacture of such wares here should not surpass that of Trenton, and monopolise the trade of the South and West, provided that the necessary site for such establishments can be procured at a reasonable price, and in prox- imity to rail and water transportation. {9.) Furniture. This is another important industry of Balti- more, in which according to the latest returns accessible, more than two thousand hands are employed, while a capital of more than $1,500,000 is invested in the business. The annual sales now amount to $3,000,000, being nearly double of what they were when the census returns were taken in 1870. Black walnut is procured at a comparatively low rate from Indiana, while the forests of West Virginia furnish an inexhaustible supply of poplar, COMMERCIAL AND MANUFACTURIKG PURPOSES. 37 and superior yellow pine can be obtained in large quantities via Chesapeake Bay, from the forests of lower Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. This branch of manufacture is increasing so rapidly, that to all appearances Baltimore will become the furni- ture emporium, not merely for Maryland proper, but for the South and West, for South America and the West Indies. (10.) .Tobacco. Last but not least among the varied manufac- tures for which Baltimore stands preeminent, is that of Chewing Tobacco, Smoking Tobacco, Cigars and SnuiF. The brands manu- factured in Baltimore have a very extensive sale both here and in Europe, and a large number of skilled laborers are constantly employed in the various factories. The export trade in leaf tobacco is one of the prominent features of business in Baltimore, and has been so since the first foundation of the city. There is a very rigid inspection of tobacco grown in Maryland, and the knowledge of this fact attracts large orders from foreign manu- facturers to Baltimore. Heavy shipments are also made from Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky, through Baltimore. The Mary- land and Ohio tobacco exported during the year ending December 31st, 1873, aggregated 51,652 hogsheads, of which 40,000 hogs- heads were for Bremen, Rotterdam and France. Allusion might be appproriately made here to the manufacture of pianos, tin and glass ware of all descriptions, fertilizers, chemi- cals and many other articles for home use and for export; but enough has been written to show that the city of Baltimore pos- sesses within herself all the resources for becoming a large manu- facturing centre: and when it is considered that these resources are supplemented by cheap fuel, cheap rents, economical transpor- tation and abundant labor, the reader will see that there is no reason why, by the attraction to itself of foreign capital for invest- ment in these varied industries, Baltimore should not become, as it is designed by nature, the great commercial and manufacturing centre for the West and South. The following statistics, relative to the imports for three years, ending December 31st, 1873, and the receipts of various articles by the Baltimore and Ohio and Northern Central Railroads during two years, will doubtless prove interesting and instructive : 38 BALTIMORE — ITS ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION FOR IMPORTS. Comparative Table of Imports and Receipts of Principal Arti- cles for Three Years, ending December 31st, 1873 : Ariicles. 1873. 1872. 1871. 380,449 372,895 560.995 1,129 1.250 1,500 110,578 113,367 110,637 1,312,612 1,175,907 1,123,028 8,330,449 9,045 465 5,735,921 2,810917 2,450,100 4,076,017 1,255 072 1,959,061 1,833,409 100,519 90,938 88,95l> 17.314 15,690 ■ 26 202 20.767 24,715 30,755 10,857 3,007 12,885 26,281 21732 28.162 54 291 50,529 68,940 45,734 91,229 64,052 150,749 175,000 158,528 9,507 10,940 32,000 3,201 5,418 7,250 49G02 103,480 108,970 2,480 25,000 10.580 ,30718 28,158 31827 30,000 ' 49 129 127 282 110.901 126,61'J 05,107 79,188 55 044 17,228 11,082 11,397 22 781 25,618 15,873 280,140 183,700 223,960 142,985 248,693 101,413 17.979 21,657 22,852 SO 340 80,020 79,.352 19,243 13,407 13.225 184.822 190 511 135.310 Coffee — Rio, bags Cocoanut,<;, M Cotton, bales Flour, barrels Corn, bushels Wheat, bushels Oats, bushels Rye, bushels Mackerel, barrels Herring, barrel.s.... Guano, tons Lemons, boxes Oranges, boxes Raisins, boxes Hides, No Ii'on, bars Pig Iron, tons Railroad bars Is on, bundles Molasses, hogsheads Sugar, bags Sugar, hogsheads Sugar, boxes Rice, tierces Rice, bags Salt, sacks Salt, bushels Spirits Turpentine, barrels Rosin, barrels Tar, (fee, barrels 'J'in Pl.ites, boxes BALTIMOEE AND OHIO KAILEOAD. Comparative Statement of the Leading Commodities Received from the "West by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and Deliv- ered to consignees at Baltimore for Eleven Months, ending No- vember 30th, for 1872 and 1873 : Cotton, bales Coal, tons Flour, barrels-... Wheat, bushels. Corn, bushels.... Oil, barrels Lumber, tons.... Provisions, tons Butter, tons 2 970 12,550 1,452,540 1,972,310 655,108 832,314 263,800 601.100 4,107,043 4,725,393 53,977 00.396 18,398 39,715 27,870 25,817 430 420 COMMERCIAL AND MANUFACTUEING PURPOSES. 39 NORTHEKN CENTRAL RAILWAY. Receipts at Baltimore for the last Two Years Compared. Coal, tons General Merchandise, tons.. Flour, barrels Grain, bushels Live Stock, tons Lime and Plaster, bushels- Pig Iron and Iron Ore, tons- Lumber, leet Coal Oil, barrels Butter, tons Lard, &o., tons Provisions, tons 1373. 212,95i 244,775 140,043 136,611 ?,l)7,798 279,534 2,282,122 1,577,794 14,149 12,915 307,976 407,201 28,035 27,612 30,153,703 23,855,458 135,595 93,397 1.30G 1,560 3,801 1.503 24,014 20,622 The whole being equivalent to 645,575 net tons, as against 599,304 tons in the year 1872, an increase of 40,271 tons, and compared with 1S71, an increase of 122,714 tons. These figures speak volumes, as indicating that Baltimore is always able to furnish, for vessels importing, a return freight of the productions of this country. As long as the receipts of home products, for shipment and for manufacture into articles of export, continue to increase in the ratio above given, there is no fear of commerce declining or manufacturing being transferred to other cities. 40 SITUATION OF HARBOE. (III.) SITUATION OF HAEBOR. The harbor or basin proper of the city of Baltimore is situated on what is known as the north west branch of Patapsco River, and when the town, as it was then termed was first founded, and for more than fifty years afterwards, the water reached up to Ex- change Place and Water street on the north and nearly to Charles street on the west, in fact the basin and dock at the present date do not occupy more than half the space, which was occupied by water in 1783. At that early stage however of the city's history, the deposits from what is known as Jones' Falls filled up the har- bor or basin to some extent, and an impost of one penny and afterwards of two pence a ton was levied on all vessels, entering or clearing with the view of providing a fund for maintaining a proper navigable depth of water. Nearly ninety-four years have elapsed and still the basin as it is termed, although somewhat ex- tensively curtailed of its pristine proportions remains in the same location, the inhabitants of Baltimore, adhere to it affectionately as an old friendly landmark, despite the noxious and mephitic vapors endangering the health of the city which rise periodically from its semi-stagnant pool, whenever some sailing craft or tug boat more adventurous or more deeply laden than its competitors stirs up the augean deposit. Dredging machines are kept con- tinually at work, and the city is put to a heavy expense year by year to keep the basin and its docks and slips clear, but the sedi- mentary deposit is still increasing and the question arises, whether it would not be much better to fill up the present basin clear across from Fell's Point due west, and for the city authorities, after having thus reclaimed property which would be highly valuable for ware- house and storage purposes, to devote their attention to keeping the anchorage at Locust Point and its vicinity of sufficient depth for large vessels. It is well known that the sedimentary deposits of a stream like Jones' Falls, or discharge from sewers when coming SITUATION OF HAEBOE. 41 into contact with tide water are immediately precipitated and if this rule holds good in instances where a basin or harbor has a current able to clear out the settled matter how much more does the rule hold good in the case of a basin like that of Baltimore city where there is little if any current and where the mean rise and fall of the tide does not in any case exceed two feet. A Balti- more newspaper, "the Gazette of September 22d, 1874," alludes in very strong terms and pointed language to the present condi- tion of the harbor, and says : " Even while we were celebrating so jubilantly the completion of our ship channel, a ship drawing but nineteen feet six inches of water was lying within biscuit toss of the great elevator of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad hard and fast aground. A few days later two ships laden with guano were also hard and fast aground parallel with the elevator. They were only gotten off after a detention of several days. Similar instances have occurred with other vessels which are fresh in the memory of our merchants. Forty years ago vessels drawing twenty feet of water found no difficulty in coming up to O'DonnelFs, Gibson's, Belt's, Corner's or Tenant's wharves or to Locust Point. There was then eighteen feet of water at the mouth of the Falls and from fifteen to eighteen feet from the Falls to the head of the Basin. At present at the wharves above mentioned there is scarcely six- teen feet of water, and at Locust Point except where dredging has been recently done not much over twelve feet. At the mouth of the Falls there is not much more than nine feet whilst commencing nearly opposite the mouth there is a bar which runs in an easterly direction nearly to Locust Point, which has been caused by the sediment flowing from the Falls to the harbor. The water on this bar is but from five to ten feet deep at mid tide, leaving but a narrow channel for vessels to pass to and from the inner harbor or what is termed the Basin. At the coal wharves at Locust Point it has been found necessary to dredge channels in order to get the coal vessels out, the draft of these vessels ranging generally from ten to eighteen feet, very few, however, drawing eighteen feet of water." These facts as given in a Baltimore paper arc quoted with the view of demonstrating that the city of Baltimore in batt- ling to retain its hold upon European and internal commerce has certain natural difficulties to contend with and overcome at a great 42 SITUATION OF HAEBOR. cost ; i. e., if it is its desire to adhere to old land-marks and not adopt a course which common prudence and adherence to the ordinary rules of hygiene would dictate. Years ago when sailing vessels were in vogue, objections might have been urged against the distance from the port to the open sea; and it may be presumed, that beating up Chesapeake Bay for nearly 200 miles in the face of head winds, was not at that date a very pleasant experience ; but steam, and its general introduction on all large sea-going vessels, have entirely obviated these diffi- culties, and the question of short inland communication is tlie principal point to be settled in all problems of through transporta- tion. It might, however, be urged that Locust Point and other deep-water frontages on the west side of Chesapeake Bay will, in all cases, command the preference as shipping points for European and Eastern or Southern ports, in view of the fact that wharf- frontage on that side of the Bay is not exposed to the wind and sea as that on the east side. The railroads also converging to Baltimore from the South and West, have their present termini on the west side of the city. In almost all large cities, the tide of improvement generally sets " Westward." There is no reason why in the case of Baltimore there should be an exception to this recog- nized idea. Locust Point and the western wharves of the i^orth- Western Branch may not be able to accommodate the rapidly increasing commerce of Baltimore, but there are other western deep-water harbors, just as accessible to Baltimore as Hoboken and Staten Island are to New York ; and the same energy and consistency of purpose, which has enabled Baltimoreans to utilize fully the short line geographical advantages of their location in connection with the West and Southwest, and by tunnelling mountains and bridging immense rivers, to make a trunk road over which the varied products of the interior should radiate to the city of their choice, will lead them to overcome what may be correctly regarded as minor obstacles, and to adapt their harbor facilities not merely to the requirements of a section of our com- mon country, but to the progressive requirements, if necessary, of a whole continent. EAILEOAD COXNECTIONS. 43 (ly.) RAILEOAD CONNECTIONS. Allusiox has been made in previous sections of this pamphlet, to the fact that Baltimore is, from its peculiar geographical loca- tion, at the nearest accessible tide-water on the Atlantic seaboard, and from its short rail line advantages, destined to become the great shipping point and commercial emporium for the West and South. It has been also shown how the commerce of the city has increased during the past eight years, since the establishment of a regular European line of steamers; and how, under the combined influences of cheap fuel, cheap rents, abundant water supply and a cheap market, an additional stimulus has been given to all manu- facturing industries. The growth of the city proper has been traced from the time when in 1729 its area was limited to sixty acres, down to the present date, when the population is more than 320,000 ; and when the assessed, not real, value of property is more than $300,000,000. It will be appropriate now to trace out in detail the various railroad connections of Baltimore, and indicate to the reader who may, perchance, not be thoroughly conversant with these facts, that the short rail line advantages claimed for the city are not exaggerated ; and it may be advisable in this connec- tion to treat of the various railroad lines categorically, in accor- dance with the importance of each, and the magnitude of its operations. (1.) Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The main line extending from Baltimore to Wheeling, a distance of 379 miles; connects at Hagerstown Junction, 79 miles from Baltimore with the Washington County Railroad, running from that point to Hagerstown. The importance of this connection must be apparent on reference to the map, because at Hagerstown, 44 EAILROAD CONNECTIONS. control is secured of a portion of the traffic originating in that section of the country, which otherwise would be tributary to the Cumberland Valley Eailroad and would be naturally diverted to Harrisburg or Philadelphia ; at Haeper's Ferry connection is made with what is now known as the Harper's Ferry and Valley Branchy which consists of the " Winchester and Potomac," " "Win- chester and Strasburg," " Manassas Gap Extension " and " Valley of Virginia " Railroads. The first named road was leased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in 1867, for a period of twenty years, at an annual rental of $27,000. The second named was leased in 1870, for a term of seventeen years at a rental equi- valent to seven per cent, annually on its capital stock. The third named, extending from Strasburg to Harrisonburg was leased during the autumn or early winter of 1873, while the last named, as being a road under process of construction to Salem, and one in which the city of Baltimore and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company have a large pecuniary interest, is operated in connection with the road from Harper's Ferry to Harrisonburg ; but on what terms is not known, presumably, however, at cost. This connec- tion at Harper's Ferry, renders the traffic originating at present in the Shenandoah Valley, tributary to the market of Baltimore ; and its present commercial value should not be under estimated, but its prospective importance when the Valley Railroad is completed to Salem on the line of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Rail- road, is very great ; inasmuch, as it must cause a large proportion of the traffic of the Chesapeake and Ohio, and the Atlantic, Mis- sissippi and Ohio Railroads to converge to Baltimore instead of Richmond and Norfolk. Relative to this Valley Railroad, it may be noted that it passes through the centre of the great valley of Virginia, a district un- surpassed in fertility of soil and in mineral and agricultural wealth, and in the thrift and energy of its rapidly increasing population. It will command from its opening a heavy local traffic and must prove a remunerative investment to its originators. It may be noted in this connection that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in pursuance of its consistent policy to build up the commercial interests of the city of Baltimore, has been compelled to lend a helping hand to the new railroads which were originated EAILEOAD C02JNECTI0NS. 45 to develop the trade of the South, and thus to neutralize the per- sistent efforts of the Southern Security Company to divert the traffic either to Philadelphia or New York. That these efforts were mainly dictated by a determined opposition on the part of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, to the existing management ♦ of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company is -well known; also that advantages were taken of the impecunious condition of some prominent southern railroads, to obtain their control. Un- expected circumstance3 have conspired to defeat in some measure a programme, which aimed practically at shutting off the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad from its geographical alliances with the South and the Gulf states ; so that Baltimore can now renew its business relations with that section of country, by more than one line of railroad ; meanwhile, it is satisfactory to know that the Valley Route via Harper's Ferry, will form an important, and in all probability the shortest available all rail line between Baltimore, New Orleans, Mobile and other southern cities. At Cumberland, connection is made with the Pittsburg, Wash- ington AND Baltimore Railway, (Connellsville route,) and a short line established between the great laboratory of the United States and tide-water. It may be noted here that prior to the construction of railroads, the w-hole business of the section of country lying between Pittsburg and Cumberland was transacted at Baltimore. The opening of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Pittsburg to Philadelphia caused the diversion of traffic into a new channel, but every effort is now being made by the merchants of Baltimore to regain their lost supremacy, and if direct connection can once be established with the oil regions of Pennsylvania, by the construction of an independent road from near Pittsburg on the Connellsville route to a junction with the Alleghany Valley Railway, a stimulus would at once be given to the petroleum traffic at Baltimore which would contribute very largely to its commercial prominence. At Piedmont, by connection with the system of the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Baltimore obtains control of a coal business whose volume is im- mense, and which is annually increasing. The direct and indirect advantages accruing to the city from this coal trade cannot be over- estimated, and the day is not far distant when its magnitude can 46 RAILROAD CONNECTIONS. only be limited by the terminal facilities for handling it and guar- anteeing its expeditious and economical shipment. At Grafton the North-west Virginia Railroad, now known as the Parhersburg Division, diverges from the main stem, and large expenditures have been made by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company between Grafton and Parkersburg, with the view of perfecting their railroad connections with Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, the Mississippi Valley and generally with the South-west. It is believed that $9,000,000 have been invested in reconstruction of the North-west Virginia Railroad, arching its twenty-three tunnels, and building the magnificent iron bridge over the Ohio river at Parkersburg, and that such outlay was fully justified is evidenced by the rapidly increasing business from the section of country which it taps, and the greater proportion of which converges to Baltimore as a market. With reference to the advantages to be derived by the city of Cincinnati from availing itself of the short line via Parkersburg, the President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company made the following appropriate remarks in 1870 : " For Cincinnati the advantages are most palpable. The average distance in favor of Cincinnati in communication with Baltimore, as compared with New York, is 240 miles. Can it be possible that with such immense advantages, with unequaled piers and fire-proof warehouses furnished without charge for foreign steamships, with the cheapest and enormous facilities for transporta- tion between the East and West — can it be possible that if Balti- more will but continue her vigor and enterprise, will furnish additional lines of steamships to Europe, that the business of all these vast regions will not be attracted through their interests to Baltimore instead of New York ? Can be possible that when more than 200 miles of land transportation can be saved in the interests of the farmer and the consumer in the West, that this great ad- vantage will not be availed of? The Queen City will yet reach its highest prosperity and command enlarged trade through the use of its shortest and cheapest outlet to the ocean. It could thus compete boldly and successfully with any Western city, and its situation in relation to the trade of great territories would be superior and im- pregnable. We said to her citizens, that Baltimore had long recognized the strength of Cincinnati, that the preceding adminis- EAILEOAD CONNECTIONS. 47 tration, and for nearly twelve years the present administration, of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company had continued to spend its capital, iu all that period without net result, in constructing the shortest line between the cities, until upwards of $10,000,000 have been invested in the line from Grafton to Cin- cinnati ; $8,000,000 have been expended in building the Parkers- burg Branch; $1,000,000 for the bridge at Parkersburg to connect the Marietta and Cincinnati with the Baltimore and Ohio Road, and $1,000,0000 of aid has been extended to the Marietta and Cincinnati Company. Our conviction has been that this line must be perfected, its tunnels permanently arched, the bridge erected, and the entire line made first-class. Thus our millions have been expended. We still believe that our faith has not been misplaced, and that soon this splendid and shortest line will be adopted as the great highway for commerce and travel and prove the source of the greatest fruition to the communities interested." Again, in connection with Louisville, President Garrett remarked in the same tone in 1870: "In a short period Louisville can command this very improved, direct and economical route to the seaboard. The favorable comparative distances of which you can thus avail for your foreign and general commerce, are very remarkable. To Baltimore, the distance by this line through Cincinnati, is 696 miles. To New York, by the Ohio and Mississippi and New York and Erie, it is 987 miles — 291 mWas further. By the New York Central, 989 miles — making 293 miles greater distance; and by the Allentown route of the Pennsylvania Road, the dis- tance is 155 miles greater." Again referring to St. Louis and the shortest route to the seaboard, the following statement was made: " Passing from Chicago to St. Louis, Baltimore reaches its own parallel, and affords for that great and progressive city, the shortest and most direct route to the seaboard. Through the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad to Cincinnati, and the Marietta and Cincin- nati Road ; thence the Baltimore and Ohio Road presents a line 210 miles less in distance to Baltimore, than the average distance by the three trunk lines used from St. Louis to New York. That city to maintain and increase her commerce, must avail of the vast advantages of this short route and of the economies of the port of Baltimore. St. Louis appreciates the necessity of close, improved 48 RAILEOAD CONNECTIONS. and increased relations with Baltimore. Her leading and most thoughtful citizens express their anxiety to secure a cordial and effective alliance with Baltimore through its great highway — the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad." Turning again to the main stem, the reader will find that at Benwood, 375 miles from Baltimore, connection is made with the Central Ohio Railroad, by another magnificent iron bridge over the Ohio river, and at Wheeling, with the Cleveland and Pittsburg and Hempfield Railroads, the latter of which extending from Wheeling to Washington, Pa., is controlled and operated by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. The value of this connection at Benwood, and the im- portance of securing in the interests of Baltimore its independent control, was thoroughly appreciated and acted on by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company at the close of the war, or rather in 18G6, when a provisional contract was entered into for leasing the Central Ohio Railroad at a fixed percentage of earnings, with the understanding that such percentage should in no case be less than $160,000 per annum, a sum which was required to meet the annual interest on the bonded debt of the lessors and the annual contributions to the sinking fund. At the time of making this contract, which subsequently was shaped into a lease for twenty years, renewable indefinitely, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company regarded the action as important in view of the connec- tions for Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and other Western points made via Columbus. The anticipations then formed as to the prospec- tive volume of traffic to be obtained at Columbus, have been some- what interferred with by leases of roads west of that point in a rival interest, and at what is considered by many as an extravagant rental ; but arrangements have been made for obtaining a large amount of the traffic converging to Indianapolis, over the India- napolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette Railroad; and although the lease of the Central Ohio Railroad has not hitherto been a direct source of profit to the lessees, still advantages have accrued to the city of Baltimore from the lease, and these advantages will be much more appreciated when the line between Bellaire and New- ark becomes an important link in the new short line route, over which the almost unlimited traffic from Chicago and the North-' West will be carried. At Neioarh, thirty-three miles from Colum- EAILROAD CONNECTIONS. 49 bus, the western terminus of the railroad system via Bellaire, under the control of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, connection is made with the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark, and the Newark, Somerset and Straitsville Railroads, both of which are leased and operated respectively as the Lake Erie and Straitsville Divisions. By control of the first named road from Newark to Sandusky, the lessees obtained a favorable line to the Lakes, and via Monroeville, an available route to Chicago, over the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, while by the latter access v/as gained to valuable, and from present appearances, highly remunerative coal fields. In consequence of heavy ex- penditures requisite to put the road between Newark and San- dusky in first class condition, the lease of this property has hitherto resulted in a loss, but a large amount of traffic originating i.u Chicago, Toledo, and other places, has been diverted to Baltimore as a market in consequence of this lease, and as the whole trans- portation of the new Baltimore, Pittsburg and Chicago Railroad, will, within a few weeks, be concentrated on ninety miles of the Lake Erie Division, viz : from Centreton to Newark, the lease of this property must result in profit during future years. Relative to this new road, from Centreton to Chicago, which is destined to have such an important bearing, not merely on the annual earnings of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and its leased lines, but, on the commercial future of the city of Baltimore, it may be appropriately noted here that it commences at Centreton, and thence follows a course about midway between the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, on the north, and the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, on the south, through Ohio and Indiana, passing by the flourishing towns of Republic, Tiffin, Fostoria, New Baltimore, Deshler, Holgate, Defiance and Hicksville in Ohio and Auburn, Avilla, Albion, Milford, Syracuse and New Bremen in Indiana, the entire distance from the Lake Erie Division to Chicago being about 268 miles. In locating this line great care has been taken to secure low gradients and easy curvature, while as little deviation as possible is made from an air line. It is stated on good authority that the line as located does not vary more than 2j^ miles from the air line, and the maximum grade will not exceed 26 feet to the mile. With these advantages of easy grades, 4 50 EAILEOAD CONNECTIONS. an air line and curves of not less than one degree, and with liabili- ties per mile, much less than those of other roads with which it will be placed in competition, it would be unreasonable to suppose that Baltimore will not be able to control through cheap rates and expeditious transit a large traffic with the North-west, from which it has hitherto been practically debarred through not having an independent line to Chicago. The value of this new road will be apparent from a resume of the connections which it makes between Centreton and Chicago. At Tiffin it connects with the Cincin- nati, Sandusky and Cleveland and the Mansfield, Cold Water and Lake Michigan Railroads; at Fostoria Math the Lake Erie and Louisville Railroad; at Beshler with the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad; at Defiance with the Ohio State Canal and the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway ; at Auburn with the Detroit, Eel River and Illinois and Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroads ; at Avilla with the Grand Rapids and Indi- ana Railroad; at Milford with the Cincinnati, Wabash and Michigan Railroad; and at Walkerton with the Indianapolis, Peru and Chicago Railroad, while connection will be made with the Michigan Central and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railways some twenty miles east of Chicago. Special favorable arrangements have been made with the Illinois Central Railroad Company for joint use of track and depot ground at the Lake Front in Chicago, and a tract of land covering forty acres has been secured in South Chicago, on which it is proposed to erect the largest shops yet erected in or out of Chicago. The engine house will have stalls for thirty-two locomotives and there will be car shops and work shops of all kinds to correspond. It may be noted that the road from Centreton to Chicago will not cost when com- pleted much more than $6,000,000 or an average of $23,000 per mile, that the necessary funds have been furnished by the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad Company, and that there is no funded or floating debt as a lien upon the road. Numerous pertinent facts and figures might be given here as indicating the superior finan- cial basis on which the system of railroads now controlled by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in the interests of Balti- more rest as compared with that of its trunk line competitors, but their perusal and study would doubtless weary the reader and EAILROAD COKN'ECTIONS. 51 even thus much about western connections would not have been written had it not been deemed advisable in justice to the commerce of Baltimore to show how much her geographical advantages for becoming the port for Western produce will be increased by the completion of this new road. There will be three connections for Toledo, and the merchants will be able to avail themselves in con- sequence of low competitive rates. The whole section of country, drained by the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway and its branches including Central and Southern Illinois and Missouri will become tributary to Baltimore by the new connection at .Defiance, while from Auburn and from Avilla in connection with the vast forests of Michigan and Indiana can be built up a lumber trade which will equal if not surpass that of other rival cities. While however the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company has been closely occupied in perfecting its western connections, improvements in connection with the South have not been neglected, aid has been as stated above extended to the Valley Railroad, a new connection has been established at Alexandria with the Washington City, Virginia Midland and Great Southern Railway, the Metropolitan Branch Railroad shortening the distance between Washington and Baltimore and principal Western cities, has been completed, in fact every thing which was possible has been done to carry out the ideas by which the originators of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad were animated, and to utilize geographical advantages of location by the establishment of a perfect railroad system which would render the business of the South-west and North-west tributary to Baltimore. {2.) Northern Central Railway. The railroad connections of Baltimore, via the Northern Cen- tral Railway, and its various tributaries, are, in some respects, as important as those of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which have just been described in detail; but the policy of the managers controlling the line, via Harrisburg, has not been consistently directed to building up the commerce of the city, and they have labored under difficulties in the shape of terminal facilities which were not experienced by their competitors. At the same time, it 52 EAILROAD CONNECTIONS. cannot be denied that if the Northern Central Railway had been governed directly in the interest of Baltimore, it would have been instrumental in building up more varied industries ; in fact, while the allegiance of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is due to Balti- more only, that of the Northern Central Railway is divided be- tween Philadelphia and Baltimore, and this state of affairs must continue so long as a controlling interest in the management is held by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Statements given in a previous portion of this pamphlet indicate the tonnage brought to Baltimore via the Northern Central Railway, and its varied character. The iron, marble, lime and granite of Balti- more county stand side by side in the yards with the anthracite coal of Pennsylvania, the coal oil of Venango county, the rich ores of Lake Superior, the lumber of Western New York, and the cereals or other products of the West and North-west, in brief, all the resources of this vast country are represented in the general traffic of the Northern Central Railway, and there is no doubt that a much larger representation could be secured, in the event of suitable arrangements being made for terminal facilities at tide- water. The line now owned by the Northern Central Rail- way Company was commenced a short time after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, under a charter granted to the "Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad Company," and it was expected at that time that concurrent legislation would be obtained from the Legis- lature of Pennsylvania, but in this respect the original projectors of the road were disappointed, and it was not until 1832 that authority was given to incorporate the "York and Maryland Railroad," said legislation having been further supplemented in 1846 by a charter incorporating the " York and Cumberland Railroad Company," to construct a railroad from York to a junc- tion with the Cumberland Valley Railroad at some point between Mechanicsburg and West of the Susquehanna river. Ini 1857 the " Susquehanna Railroad Company" was chartered to build a railroad from some point on the line of the York and Cumber- land Railroad to Sunbury, and the correct geographical alliance of this enterprise with those of the railroad companies previously mentioned was so fully appreciated that they were allowed to sub- scribe to the capital stock of the Susquehanna Railroad Company, RAILROAD CONNECTIONS. 53 and the city of Baltimore loaned its credit to the extent of §500,000. In 1854: the Legislature of the State of Maryland, and in 1855 that of the Commonwealth of Pennsylv^ania, passed an act author- izing a consolidation of all the interests between Baltimore and Sunbury, conditioned that there should be no discrimination in favor of Baltimore as against Philadelphia. Provision was also made at the same time for consolidating the amount due by the railway company to the State of Maryland, by the annual pay- ment of $90,000, equal to six per cent, on $1,500,000. Under these auspices, the road was completed to Sunbury prior to the outbreak of the war in 1861, but the enterprise was not remunera- tive until the fortunes of war concentrated on to the Northern route, via Harrisburg, a large amount of traffic which, under other circumstances, would have been tributary to the Southern line. In February, 1863, the Shamokin Valley and Pottsville Railroad, extending from Sunbury to Mt. Carmel, and opening up an ex- tensive coal region, was leased for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, and in May of the same year the Elmira and Williamsport Railroad w^as leased for a similar period. In 1866 the unexpired term of lease, held by the Erie Railway Company, of the Elmira, Jefferson and Canandaigua and Chemung Railroads, was assumed by the Isorthern Central Railway Company, and through effect- ing these arrangements, control and independent management was obtained of a through line between Baltimore and Canandaigua three hundred and twenty-five miles in length — (the forty miles between Sunbury and Williamsport being practically in the same interest, although owned by the Philadelphia and Erie Railway Company.) A detailed account has been given of the various steps by which the Northern Central Company attained its pres- ent position, with the view of informing the reader what an extent of territory the Company covers in its operations. Traffic for Baltimore originating on any of the lines owned directly by the Pennsylvania Railroad, or under its control, comes via Harris- burg. This is especially applicable to business originating in Pittsburg, of which, until the Connellsville route was opened, the Northern Central Railway had a practical monopoly. All the petroleum conveyed to Baltimore, other than that which is pro- cured from West Virginia, is sent via Harrisburg, and all the 54 RAILROAD CONNECTIONS. trade for Baltimore originating in Western JS^ew York, Bnffalo and the Dominion of Canada, pays tribute to the same route. An impetus could doubtless be given to this traffic if the construc- tion of appropriate terminal facilities at tide- water was carried out. The necessity for having such conveniences for shipment of produce has long been realized by the managers, and during 1873 a lease was entered into with the Canton Company for 700 feet of water front on the Susquehanna wharf, with a depth of over 1,200 feet from Third street to the Port Warden's line, and also a large lot below Eighth avenue, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, and binding on Twelfth avenue about 1,000 feet, and running to the water of the Patapsco river, at an annual rent of $15,000 for the two lots together. The understanding of this lease was that the first lot was to be improved for the tide- water terminus of the Northern Central Railway and Baltimore and Potomac Railroad for the grain, j^roduce and general merchandize trade, and the other lot on the Patapsco river was to be improved with coal piers and wharves. It was stated at the time of entering into this lease that "the lessees would expend at any rate $1,000,000 on the wharves ^nd terminal improvements," but the outlay has not yet been made, neither has the stipulated coal tonnage been sent over the Union Railroad to Canton. The railway company still uses the mule and horse tracks heretofore laid down on the grades of Monument street. Central avenue and other streets to tidewater at Fell's Point, the use of said tracks being perpetuated by the per- mission of the City Council of Baltimore, in violation, as it is stated, of an express contract made with the Canton Company for their removal on the reorganization and reconstruction of the Union Railroad. It may be noted here that a perpetual lease of the Northern Central Railway to the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany has been agitated during the past eighteen months, and negotiations looking to such lease have been partly interrupted by the panic of 1873, and partly by a controversy amongst the stock- holders in regard to the rate of dividends to be paid under the lease. This may account for the delay in carrying out the programme for improving the leased ground at Canton, or it may be that the Northern Central Railway Company are awaiting further develop- ments with the expectation that superior terminal facilities will EAILROAD CONXECTIOXS. 55 be brought within its reach at a more convenieut and available harbor. (5.) Baltimore and Potomac Railroad. It seems extraordinary that while the State of Maryland and the city of Baltimore were devoting their energies to building and perfecting connections with the West and other sections of the country, they should have ignored, to a very great extent, traffic originating within forty or fifty miles of the city in some of the richest agricultural counties of the State, and for which steamers or sailing craft furnished the only means of transportation. The Western Shore was until recently entirely without railroad facil- ities, and although a charter had been obtained in 1853 for con- structing the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, still no county or State aid could at that time be procured, from the fact that the inhabitants and property owners of that section were willing to " let well alone," and could not be brought to appreciate the stimu- lus which railroad construction would give to their local industries, and the enhanced value of their property. It may have been that the land owners in these counties were all wealthy and hated any thing like innovation; be that as it may, just as two sections of the road from Marlboro' to Odeuton (junction of the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad) had been placed under contract, the war broke out; a period of inactivity followed; the whole formerly existing system of labor Avas disorganized, and the property owners of the various counties through which the road was located, then alive to the paramount importance of a railroad, were so financially crippled that they could not contribute to its construction. The building also of a competing line was also strenuously opposed by the managers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and it was with great difficulty that the necessary additional legislation for perfecting the work was obtained. This legislation was carried in the session of 1867, and immediately thereafter negotiations were entered into with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for aid in constructing the road, and as independent control of a road to the National capital, and thence to a connection with the Southern system of railroads, was deemed advisable, the necessary 56 EAILEOAD CONNECTIONS. financial aid was granted, and the road from Washington to Balti- more was opened for traffic in July, 1872, and from Bowie (26 miles from Baltimore) to Pope's Creek, 49 miles, in January, 1873. The cost of construction was heavy/, in consequence of the high price of labor and material, and the long tunnels under the cities of Wasington and Baltimore, but the advantages to be derived by the city of Baltimore from its construction cannot be over-estimated. New industries will be developed along the new line of road, an impetus will be given to the production of tobacco, fruit, early vegetables and cereals, all of which will converge to Baltimore as a market, while in additioli to the development of purely local resources, the interchange of through traffic with Richmond and other sections of the South tapped by the connections at Alexandria and Quantico must increase in a ratio corresponding with the facil- ities furnished for transportation. There is no reason why, with a complete through line from Richmond to Weldon, Wilmington, Columbia, Augusta, Charleston and Savannah, via the "Atlantic Coast Line/' 'and with another through line from Richmond to Charlotte, Danville, Spartanburg, Atlanta, West Point, Mont- gomery, New Orleans and Mobile, via the Piedmont Air- Line, and with the through traffic of both these well-known through lines converging to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and its con- nections, Baltimore, as a commercial centre, should not be largely benefitted. There is no reason why, under proper management and with appropriate inducements, (that is, if the South, freed from its political imbroglios, returns to its normal condition of affluence and prosperity,) Baltimore should not avail itself of advantages within its grasp and become in the future, as in the past, the gen- eral emporium or market for the merchants of the South. (^.) Western Ifaryland Railroad. While the capitalists and merchants of Baltimore have been busily occupied in perfecting their railroad connections with the West, North and South, they have not been unmindful of the traffic which must result from the construction of a rail- road to develop the mineral wealth of Carroll, Frederick and KAILROAD CONNECTIONS. 57 Washington counties ; said railroad eventually, in all probability to be extended to Johnstown, Pa., and to the oil regions. It is believed that the Western Maryland Railroad Company is suc- cessor to the franchises of the " Baltimore and "VYestrainster Rail- road Company," a company originally formed to purchase from the "Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad Company," all its rights and interest in a branch road, then being constructed from a point on its main line within ten miles of the city of Baltimore, through Westminster to some point on the Monocacy river in Fred- erick county ; which would form the most convenient and direct practicable communication between that county and the city of Bal- timore. The company operating this road had only succeeded in constructing 33 miles from Relay to Union Bridge at the close of the war, and was entirely unable to extend the line to Hagerstown and Williamsport in consequence of financial difficulties. The city authorities of Baltimore, appreciating fully the situation, and realizing that without their aid the objects contemplated in the original charter could not be carried out, came forward at this junc- ture and loaned the company the credit of the city by endorsement of bonds and issue of city stock. Under these auspices an independent line of road has been built from Fulton Station in Baltimore to Ow- ings' Mills; the line has also been completed from Union Bridge to Williamsport, where connection is made with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and where, as soon as terminal facilities are provided at tide-water, a large coal traffic will originate. A tide-water terminus at Canton has been contemplated, and arrangements were entered into looking to favorable business relations with the Balti- more and Potomac Tunnel and the Union Railroad ; but the schedule of rates up to the present time has been prohibitory except for purely local business, which will naturally bear a somewhat higher charge to avoid transfers. The charges from Fulton Station to tide-water are 39 cents per ton or even more, and the gross charge on coal per ton is consequently higher than by other lines; hence, under present circumstances, unless the AVestern Maryland Railroad can secure some clieaper access to a shipping point, its coal trade must of necessity be confined to local demands. As pertinent to this subject, a quotation is given from the annual report of the Canton Company for 1874. " The rates 58 RAILROAD CONNECTIONS. of toll demanded by the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad of the Western Maryland Road for the passage through her tunnel of coal and other tonnage, and also over the short link of the North- ern Central Railway that connects with the Union Road tracks at North street, are, in fact, prohibitory on a new trade which of necessity, must be comparatively small for a year or so; but if fostered and encouraged by moderate rates as it ought to be, would increase in time to such an amount as, would enable the Western Maryland to submit to the charge, under the city ordinance which operates on a sliding scale in proportion to the amount of business that passes through the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel." Other outlets are available for the Western Maryland Railroad, and the city of Baltimore will be derelict in duty to itself, if, after having made such heavy advances in; the direct interest of the city, she does not provide that these advances shall be utilized to the best advantage, and economical tide- water facilities furnished without delay in accordance with the increase of traffic. A comparatively cheap line (as to construction,) can be built along the western limits of the city to the deep water below Spring Gardens, or to the deeper location at Curtis' Bay, (now Pennington.) It is not merely however as a purely local road, bringing the inexhaustible supplies of the Cumberland Basin to tide- water, together with tlie agricultural products of Carroll, Frederick and Washington coun- ties, that the Western Maryland Railroad is to be regarded. Those who originally projected it, and those who are associated with its present management, have still higher and more extended aspira- tions for its future ; they know that the road can be extended to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a distance of 100 miles, at a cost per mile not to exceed that of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ; they know that by construction of such extension, Pittsburg would be brought within 258 miles of Baltimore, and that every section of the road would yield a heavy and annually increasing tonnage in coal, iron ore, lumber and other agricultural produce; all tributary to the city of Baltimore, all tending to build up her reputation and prestige as a manufacturing and commercial centre. It may be noted that by sucK a line, if operated conjointly with the Penn- sylvania and Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroads, the distance between Chicago and Baltimore would be reduced to 727 RAILROAD CONNECTIONS. 69 miles, as against 795 miles via Centreton and Newark, and 801 miles via Pittsburg and Harrisburg. This difference representing 3 hours time for passenger travel, and in a corresponding ratio for freight traffic cannot be ignored, and must be availed of by com- peting lines, especially if our prognostications relative to the com- mercial prominence of Baltimore are correct, and substantiated by facts. . -»- . (5.) Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. The existing connections of Baltimore by railroad West, North and South have now been fully alluded to, but it has also a direct Eastern connection with Philadelphia, New York and Boston, over the line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Eailroad. It may be presumed that almost all the traffic passing over this road, from Baltimore to Philadelphia and beyond, is through to and from the South and West; a certain proportion also of the local business, more especially that originating west of Perryville, will doubtless radiate to Baltimore as a market, while east of that point the trade and business travel will go to Phila- delphia. The all-rail connection, however eastward, is evidently highly appreciated, and as unusual facilities are furnished by the railroad company for excursion travel, trains during the summer months are patronized to an extent which compensates for the decrease in through business, incident to the recess of Congress. Cars are transferred, without breaking bulk, from the Philadel- phia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, in Canton, to Locust Point, and there made up into trains for the West and South. Traffic for the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad connects via the Union Railroad and Tunnel. (6.) Baltimore and Brum Point Railroad. Prominent among the prospective railroad connections of the city of Baltimore, may be mentioned the Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad, now in process of construction from Baltimore to Drum Point, on the Patuxent River, a distance of about seventy- 60 I RATLROAD CONNECTIONS. four miles. The enterprise has created a great deal of attention throughout the State, and is regarded favorably by the State authorities, in view of the fact that Drum Point Harbor is pro- nounced by officers of the United States Coast Survey to be infe- rior only to that of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and has been for a long time regarded by intelligent merchants and shippers as a point which would prove a valuable adjunct to the commerce of Baltimore, if connected with that city by a railroad ; affording as it does the deepest water — never liable to obstruction by ice or otherwise — and within an easy run of the Capes. Time will of course demonstrate whether these ideas about establishing a coal depot at the southern terminus of the new road will be success- fully realized, and whether a port, which has no opportunities of disposing of or distributing inward cargoes, can be made a finan- cial success ; but pending the solution of this question it may be stated that the development of the fine country between Baltimore and Drum Point, by the construction of a railroad, must inure to the prosperity both of the State and city, by stimulating the pro- duction of the earliest fine fruits and vegetables, which will find a ready market in Baltimore, both for immediate consumption and for canning. ,A large oyster trade can be also built up, and the contributions of tobacco and grain from Anne Arundel and Cal- vert counties will be very considerable ; as a proof of this it may be stated that the crop of Maryland tobacco inspected in Baltimore amounted, in 1872, to 30,000,000 pounds, about one-third of which was produced in the counties above mentioned. There are also considerable products of butter, milk, eggs, poultry, meats, and wood and timber of all kinds. For these productions the only means of communication with a market have hitherto been by steamboats, which are frequently debarred from running regu- larly at a season of the year when their services are most required. It is estimated by competent judges, that with certain definite means of transportation guaranteed by a railroad, the local pro- ductions of the country could be increased at a very low average nearly 500 per cent. Another important advantage which Balti- more will derive from the construction of the Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad, will be the direct route established by it between the city and the State capital. The distance between Annapolis RAILROAD CONNECTIONS. 61 and Baltimore by the present route of the Washington Branch and Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroads is forty miles ; by the Balti- more and Drum Point Railroad the distance will be only twenty miles, and will be run within one hour, without change of cars, and at a much less charge. As an evidence of the amount of traffic now carried on between Annapolis and Baltimore, with very imper- fect and unsatisfactory arrangements, it may be stated that the revenue derived therefrom exceeds S90,000 per annum. It is diffi- cult to predict what increase may be anticipated when the new road is built and superior conveniences furnished for the traveling and shipping public. 62 PEESENT TEEMIXAIi FACILITIES. / (Y.) PEESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. In alluding to the existing terminal facilities at Baltimore for transacting a large commerce, coastwise and with European ports, it will be distinctly understood by the reader that reference will only be made to the tide-water termini, and not to those points in the city proper which are only used in connection with local traffic, and to secure its prompt and economical handling. It will be advisable also to ignore, for practical purposes, the harbor and basin of Baltimore, as they are termed, because as shown above in Article III — on the Situation of the Harbor — they are only adapted for small coasting vessels, drawing a few feet of water, and are, under existing circumstances, a serious drawback instead of an advantage to the city. The terminal facilities, therefore, may be considered as comprised in those at Locust Point and Canton. (-/.) Locust Point, The advantages of Locust Point as a tide-water terminus were appreciated by the managers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at an early period in its history, and in 1848 Mr. Thomas Swann, then President of the Company, purchased some land, and tracks were built for the coal traffic, which increased more than 150 per cent, in the course of two years through what were then considered favorable arrangements for its shipment. In 1851, three years after the, first purchase by Mr. Swann, alluded to above, it was found that the lands of the company were entirely inadequate to the requirements of the augmented traffic, and an inducement was held out to private parties to erect their own wharves on the northern front of Whetstone Point. This inducement, which was in tlie shape of a drawback of six cents per ton on all coal received by parties at their own wharves, has produced very favorable results, as is attested by the numerous wharves now in existence, PRESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. 63 which are taxed to their full capacity. The arrangement of this system of private wharves at Locust Point is very perfect, and the shutes are constructed so that coal is loaded from the cars directly into the hold of the vessel at a merely nominal cost, the drawback alone guaranteeing a handsome interest on the money invested in the original erection of the wharves. In the twelve years imme- diately subsequent to the purchase of their property at Locust Point, the managers of the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad Com- pany did little, if any thing, towards its general improvement, otherwise than by securing facilities for handling the coal traffic — but in 1860, after their connections with the "West had been estab- lished, fresh attention was directed to the advantageous situation of the property as a tide- water terminus, and a European line of steamships was projected. All efforts in this direction were, how- ever, temporarily neutralized by the outbreak of the war, and the discouragement of all public enterprises incident thereto, neither was the subject publicly agitated again until 1865, when, as before stated, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company purchased from the United States Government four steamships, which were named respectively the Alleghany, Carroll, Somerset and Worcester, but which were shortly found to have too limited a carrying capacity for the increasing business, and were consequently superceded by the magnificent Clyde built steamers of the North German Lloyds' Line. The establishment of this steamship line necessitated the immediate construction of steamship piers and warehouses. The piers, wharves and warehouses have been built in the most sub- stantial and approved manner, with every possible precaution against damage by fire or other casualty, and one of the piers is 760 feet long and 90 feet wide, while the other is 675 feet in length with a width of 100 feet. These two piers are covered over with iron sheds, and on each there is a double track, on which the cars are run in directly from the yard. There is a space of 100 feet between each of these two piers, and another space of 100 feet between the second steamship pier and the next wharf. It was estimated in the construction of these docks that facilities would be furnished for loading and unloading, if necessary, at one time four large steamships. Freight can be transferred directly from the hold of the steamer to the cars, and'i;tce versa. In addition 64 PRESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. there is an extensive bonded warehouse on the pier, and in all the improvements, as would be evident to any careful and intelligent observej', the economical and expeditious handling of merchandise has been kept constantly in view. One of these piers is now devoted to the through traffic to or from New York, Philadelphia and Boston, destined for the main line, which is brought by the various steamers running to these Eastern cities, the volume of which is much larger than would be anticipated from the strong competition existing for transportation between the East and West. Apropos of these docks, it may be noted that the visitor is very forcibly struck with their admirable system of construction and general arrangement. All the buildings along the water-front are surrounded on three sides by water, the docks are, with but one exception, one hundred feet wide, and they are presumed to be of an uniform depth of twenty-four feet; although it is believed that this depth is maintained by continual dredging, there being no active current to carry away accumulating deposits. There are at present, seven docks; the first at the western limit of the com- pany's water front, between the two steamship piers above men- tioned ; the second, between the second steamship pier and an extensive wharf; the third, between the wharf and the small elevator ; the fourth, between the small elevator and the railroad ferry ; the fifth, between the railroad ferry and what soon will be the coffee warehouse ; the sixth, between the proposed coffee ware- house and the large new elevator ; the seventh, between the last mentioned elevator and a wharf which runs back to the walls of the Fort. The improvements in connection with the first, second, third, fourth and sixth docks may be considered as complete; between the fifth and sixth docks, the company are engaged in constructing after the most substantial and approved designs, a large coffee warehouse. This warehouse will be more than 267 feet long by 77 feet wide. It will consist of two stories and will be absolutely fire-proof. The massive foundation of this ware- house rests on piles, or rather on a substantial frame-work placed on piles and braced securely, with a view of obviating any ulti- mate settling of the foundation. Stone, brick and iron are the only materials which will enter into the construction of this ware- house, and single tracks capable of accommodating nine cars each, PEESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. 65 will be placed on each side. A similar warehouse with equal facilities for handling traffic, will be built on the wharf contiguous to the seventh dock, and this will be devoted to the storage of sugar. The main object of the company in erecting these two substantial warehouses for sugar and coffee, is to foster the rapidly increasing trade between Baltimore and the West Indies or South America, and to stimulate the importation of these two staple articles for the West and North-west via Baltimore ; in fact, when all these plans are consummated, Baltimore will become the most convenient and economical port of entry for commodities which have heretofore been distributed from New York. The commer- cial interests of the city will also be much benefited by these im- provements, through the attraction of a much larger number of vessels to Baltimore as a port of entry ; hitherto, conveniences have been furnished for a large export trade, and but, compara- tively speaking, little attention has been paid to the storage re- quirements of an import trade; hereafter, vessels plying between Baltimore and foreign ports can rely on a full cargo both ways, the rates of freight can be correspondingly reduced, and the consumers of the West equally with its producers, will derive substantial advantages from a reduction in first cost, and from a low rate both on ocean and inland transportation. In connection with its sys- tem of wharves, docks and warehouses, the Baltimore and Ohio Kailroad Company has established at Locust Point a railroad ferry across to Canton, where it connects with the Philadelphia, Wil- mington and Baltimore Railroad. There are two slips, each 40 feet wide, into which barges are run having a capacity of ten cars each; and it is stated that during the busy season, as many as 250 cars a day arc transferred ; in fact, by having such facilities, the company obviates entirely a tedious and expensive transfer through the city, and a large through business is transacted between New York and Philadelphia, or the South and West via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The visitor however, at Locust Point is perhaps struck most forcibly with the elevators there con- tiguous to the fourth and sixth docks. Both of these elevators are substantially built after the most approved design, and have con- jointly a capacity of 2,100,000 bushels. The arrangements for handling grain elicit the unqualified admiration of all who have 66 PEESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. inspected them and are deservedly pronounced superior to any now in use on the Atlantic Sea-board. The smaller elevator, (the first built,) is 150 feet in length by 80 feet in width, with 120 bins, 9 feet G inches square and 65 feet in depth, and eight elevators, five for receiving and three for shipping grain. The large elevator is 324 feet 10 inches long, 96 feet 10 inches wide and 168 feet 10 inches high, it is worked by two engines of 400 horse power, and has 16 receiving with 8 shipping elevators. The bins are 210 in number, 11 feet six inches square on the inside and 94 feet 3 inches deep. There are 300 buckets attached to the belt of each elevator, and their capacity is estimated at 100 bushels per minute, in fxctthe facilities for handling grain are almost unlimited. The large eleva- tor is approached by four sets of tracks, two of Avliich run directly into the elevator building. The reader will easily comprehend that in utilizing to the fullest extent the 80 acres of land, which they own at Locust Point, the engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio Kailroad Company has exercised consummate skill : the coal traffic has its special branches, with sidings and other accommodations; the steamship piers have their own peculiar tracks, switches and turn-outs, while for what is known as the New York Line, and in connection with the railroad ferry, a new road has been built along the southern water front of the peninsula. In this labyrinth of tracks, duly connected with each other by switches, so as to secure in all instances quick handling of the cars, are more than twenty miles of iron and steel, and this track mileage will be further in- creased when the company's land between the new elevator and the walls of Fort McHenry is extended and improved. And yet with all these facilities, with a capacity for handling one thousand cars daily, exclusive of the coal traffic, a question arises whether with their limited area the Company Avill be able to accommodate in its present location the large accretions of traffic, which must naturally result from the opening of a direct avenue to Chicago and the North- West. The crowded condition of the piers indicates very clearly that they are now taxed to the utmost capacity : no further extension of water front can be secured, unless by the purchase of the Fort McHenry property from the government, %vhich can hardly be anticipated, and it Avould be wise for the railroad com- pany, even in this comparative infancy of its export and import PEESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. 67 trade to make definite arrangements for securing another tide water terminus, to which a large proportion of its coal and petro^ leum business could be transferred, and the yard or grounds at Locust Point reserved exclusively for grain, coifee, sugar, and other general merchandise ; also for its through passenger traffic which will it is believed, be shortly diverted from Camden Station to this point, and be thence transferred by ferry to a connection with the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad at Canton. Much has been done already, and that much in the most perfect systematic and substantial manner; but this much will almost dwindle into insignificance within ten years from this time; i. e. if the increase of traffic during the next eight years, is commensurate with that which has characterized a similar period in the past. There is no reason why the coal trade from Cumber- land should not increase from 2,000,000 to 5.000,000 tons a year with convenient outlet at tide-water; business of any character responds to the facilities furnished, and the efforts of the Philadel- phia and Reading Railroad Company, in the direction of building up a mammoth coal trade, together with the uniform success which has attended such efforts, should convince all intelligent business men that what is now a remunerative trade might be doubled, nay, quadrupled, by a correct realization of the future and an anticipation of its numerous wants. {£.) Canton. The second existing tide-water terminus of the city of Balti- more, is at Canton, on the east side, and the Company owning the property, about 2,400 acres, with 32,000 feet, or more than six miles of water front, was incorporated in 1828. Extensive privi- leges were cotiferred by the Charter or Act of Incorporation, as will be seen from the following extract : "The objects for which the Canton Company of Baltimore afore- said are incorporated, and which the said Company are hereby authorized to effect, are the improvements in such manner as shall be conformable to the laws of the State, -and not contrary to nor inconsistent with any of the rights and privileges of the corpora- 68 PRESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. tion of the city of Baltimore, or of any citizen or citizens of this State or of the United States, of any lands and appurtenances which shall belong to said Company, by laying out into lots, streets, squares, lanes, alleys, and other divisions^ any such lands within the vicinity of the city of Baltimore, or near to any naviga- ble water, and erecting, constructing and making thereon all such wharves, ships, boats and other vessels, workshops, factories, ware- houses, stores, dwellings, and such other buildings and improve- ments as may be found or deemed necessary, ornamental or con- venient; and letting, selling, leasing, renting or granting on con- ditions, or using any lot or any other portion of the said lands for agricultural, mining or manufacturing purposes ; or any wharf, house, or other building or improvements to be used by any mechanic or artizan, or other person, whether in the employ of said Company or not, in carrying on any lawful trade, business or manufacture authorized or permitted by the laws of the State." When the Canton Company was first incorporated Avith its capital stock of $2,000,000, sub-divided into 20,000 shares of $100 each, the brightest future M'as confidently predicted for its operations. The stock became a foot-ball, so to speak, of speculators and adventurers, at one time, on the strength of an alliance with the Northern Central Ilailway, and the construction of its line to tide- water on the Company's property ; at another, of a probable con- nection with the Western Maryland Eailroad. The fluctuations in the price of the stock were prior to the panic of 1857, almost in- credible, ranging from $54 per $100 share to $260 ; but in the three years immediately succeeding 1857, the stock passed into the hands of some enterprising gentlemen who appreciated its value, and addressed themselves unhesitatingly to carrying out the objects for which the Company had been originally incorporated ; viz., a substantial improvement of the land by leases on ground rent, and by the construction of wharves. The proceedings of the Canton Company, however, were paralyzed by the same commercial in- activity and depression — which depressed the whole State of Maryland, during the war from 1861 to 1865. In 1866, a com- pany, called the "Union Railroad Company," was incorporated with power to construct a railroad from Relay, on the Northern Central Railway, where a connection was also made with the Western Maryland Railroad, to Canton, by a route which would PEESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. 69 carry the road around the city, passing down to Canton from the north. The capital stock of the Union Railroad Company Avas fixed at $600,000, and authority was granted to commence work as soon as $150,000 of the share capital had been actually taken up. Of such $150,000, one-third was subscribed by the Western Maryland Railroad, and one-third by the Canton Company, the balance by private individuals. Such a road would practically have constituted an extension of the Western Maryland Railroad and would not have answered the purpose of accommodating the city, neither would it have developed the Canton property in accordance with the original design of its stockholders and pro- prietors. Another plan was subsequently suggested, looking to a connection with the Western Maryland Railroad at or near Owing's Mills and with the Northern Central Railway at or near the city. In furtherance of this plan the city authorities agreed to endorse the bond's of the railroad to the extent $500,000, and aid was also promised by the Northern Central Railway Company, but experience soon demonstrated the utter folly of attempting to carry out such a heavy undertaking with a limited capital, and it was not surprising that after having secured the endorsement of the city to $117,000 of bonds and having expended of such sum $100,000, the work was suspended and a lamentable failure re- corded. Again in 1870, through the efforts of the Canton Com- pany additional legislation was obtained for the Union Railroad Company, and it was proposed that each of the railroads centering in Baltimore should join hands with the Canton Company and build a road to tide water, it being understood that the tolls to be levied on freight passing over such road should be fixed by a com- mittee representing all the parties interested. The scheme appeared to all intents and purposes feasible, but its originators were unaware of the rivalry existing between conflicting interests, and that it was almost impossible to harmonize difficulties even when such amicable settlement would have tended equally to the advantage of the rail- road companies, and to the commercial prosperity of the whole city. The so-called federation scheme failed, but in this emergency, when all hopes of resuscitating the enterprise were apparently lost, the Canton Company, appreciating fully the advantages which would accrue to their property from the completion of a railroad to their tide-water privileges, unanimously determined to subscribe 70 PEESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. for the Avhole capital stock of the Union Railroad Company, and if necessary, endorse its bonds. Under these auspices, after new surveys had been made and new estimates prepared, the work was commenced in 1871 and completed in June, 1873, at a cost, in- cluding the tunnel, of $2,300,000. The Union liailroad com- mences at a junction with the track of the Northern Central Railway, near Charles street, and its terminus is at tide-water at Canton ; and, together with its eastward branch, connecting- with the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, makes about seven and a half miles of double track, or, with sidings and switches, about eighteen miles of rail. It is laid with a heavy 72 lb. iron rail. The tunnel is five-eighths of a mile long, and is double arched. About three miles from the junction with the Northern Central Railway near Charles street, the road bifurcates, one branch connecting with the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, and establishing an all rail through route to Philadelphia and New York ; the other track goes due south, passing through the lands of the Canton Company for three miles, until it reaches the terminus at tide-water on Ninth street. The land required by the Union Railroad Company, including right of way for double track with ample facilities for water sta- tions, turn tables and other terminal improvements, amounted to thirty-five acres, and this has been deeded to the railroad company at a consideration of $200,000. The railroad, although managed by an independent organization, is practically the property of the Canton Company, as they own 5,940 out of (5,000 shares of common stock and have endorsed its bonds to the amount of $1,383,000 — $783,000 being six per cent, currency, first mortgage, and $600,000 seven per cent, gold bonds. There is also an amount due the Canton Company for land, $200,000. In making these heavy outlays for completing the Union Railroad, amounting in the aggregate (as stated above and including $117,000 first mortgage six per cent, bonds endorsed by the city) to $2,300,000, the Canton Company estimated that in addition to making a valuable perma- nent improvement to their property, they were securing a highly remunerative investment. It was estimated that at any rate 800,000 passengers would travel over the road at thirty-five cents each, also that 2,000,000 tons of coal, iron, lumber, grain, oil, and other merchandise would be transported the, whole distance of PRESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. 71 seven miles at a fixed tariff of five cents per ton per mile. The total direct revenues from this investment would have been, according to tlie estimate, about $805,000, and after paying the charges for maintenance there would have been an ample surplus to pay the annual interest on the bonded debt and a handsome divi- dend on the share capital. Unfortunately these sanguine expecta- tions have not been realized, but from causes entirely beyond the control of tlie directors of the Canton Company or the managers of the Union Railroad, and in accordance with a contract entered into with the Northern Central Railway Company, the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Company, and the AVestern Maryland Railroad Company, for a period of 99 years from December 30th, 1873, a tariff for freight and passengers has been fixed, which accords to the Union Railroad twenty cents per ton and fifteen cents per passenger to or from tide-water at Canton and to or from the Bay- view Junction of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. A considerable revenue, even at this decreased rate of charges, could be made, if the traffic were concentrated on the road as had been originally anticipated. A promise made by the President of the Northern Central Railway, that one million tons of coal should be sent over the Union Railroad within twelve months after its completion to tide-water, has entirely fallen through; the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad has entirely failed to furnish its quota of merchandise and general traffic, while little, if any, revenue has been derived from the Western Maryland Railroad, through the j^rohibitory toll demanded by the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Company on all business passing through its tunnel. There is no doubt that the Canton property is in some important respects very valuable, and its value would be very much enhanced if all the railroads converging to Baltimore came in' on the east, and not the west or north side of the city. The only railroad whose natural geographical tide-water terminus is at Canton, is the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad ; and it is believed that arrangements will shortly be made for transferring the President Street Depot to a lot on the Canton property having 177 feet water front, where extensive improve- ments in the shape of wharves and piers are contemplated ; but in anticipation of the opening of the Union Railroad and the con- centration on it of the traffic of several railroads mentioned above. 72 PRESENT TERMINAL FACILITIES. many large factories and extensive improvements have been pro- jected. A large grain elevator will be erected to meet the require- ments of the grain trade. This will be in addition to a transfer elevator of 100,000 bushels capacity at what is known as "Gard- ner's Union Railroad Depot and Elevator," which, according to the latest reports published, is transacting a heavy business — the receipts for five months ending May 31st, 1874, having been 5,277,000 bushels, a fraction less than 2,000,000 short of the entire year 1873, or 2,327,000 bushels in excess of the correspond- ing months of 1873. An extensive car wheel works is also in operation, and locomotive, car and carriage building works are also projected. Oyster and fruit packing houses, foundries of various sorts, blast furnaces, fertilizer manufacturers, sugar refineries, steam saw mills, planing mills and sash factories, distilleries, coal oil refineries, breweries, chair and furniture factories, together with other manufacturing establishments, are already built and in opera- tion on the grounds of the company. A large and thrifty larboring population is being attracted to Canton as a residence, and even if the railroad companies fail to make Canton their principal tide- water terminus, still with its existing facilities for manufactories it will enable the company to dispose of their lands at very remunerative figures. By reference to the map it will be seen that the water front of the Canton property is extensive, extend- ing from Washington street, at the base of Fell's Point to the Lazaretto Point, forming the western boundary of the North-west Branch, lying opposite Fell's Point and Locust Point, making a water front of more than five thousand feet, with a depth of water varying from sixteen to twenty-six feet deep at the Port Warden's line. From Lazaretto Point, extending eastward, into Colgate's Creek, there are fifteen thousand feet water front. These fronts are in straight lines, and the number of feet could be greatly in- creased by the erection of piers and docks. Out of this water front the Canton Company still holds among its assets, 18,750 feet and in addition, 18,500 building lots and 900 acres of land. In concluding this brief review of the terminal facilities at Canton, it might be appropriate to quote the remarks of the managers of the Company in estimating the value of their property, in comparison with that at Port Richmond, Philadeljjhia : "only a few years ago that novr most important <][uarter of Philadelphia was a thrift- PEESEXT TERMINAL FACILITIES. 73 less long shore village. The Reading Railroad M^aked it into life. More than 20,000 vessels received 2,800,000 tons of coal, at its one-and-a-half miles of double piered wharves in one year. A. city has supplanted gardens, and land has risen from $25 to $25,000 per acre. In contrast with Pore Richmond, the advanta- ges are largely on the side of Canton. The Port Richmond Rail- road is but a local coal bearing road. The Union is its equal as a coal bearing road, and the outlet of a system of roads which pene- trates three-fourths of the States in the Union. Richmond is above Philadelphia, and has no advantages of water. Canton is below Baltimore, and owns four-fifths of all the deep water on the north side of the harbor. The area at Canton is ample as that at Richmond. At its wharves, ships of the greatest burthen may re- ceive their freight direct from cars. On its spacious lands, there is room for depots convenient to store on a level with the cars the freight too heavy to hoist — for furnaces, forges, factories, mills and shops, into which trucks may carry material too heavy to bear the cost of frequent handling, in competition with cheaper labor; for the combination of land and water necessary to build and launch vessels, whether of wood or iron, where materials may be raised from the train to the stocks ; and on the high hills, sites for facto- ries, where the breeze will cool the air, that women and children breathe as they tread their spindles and the loom, and whence in return the trains will convey direct from factory, shop and ship, the products of Eastern labor to consumers in the far-off West, no longer enhanced in prices by storage, drayage, or commissions." It has been our aim in presenting our readers with an account of the terminal facilities of Baltimore, as they now exist, to present a succinct and truthful statement. The facts^ as given, are partly the result of personal examination, and are compiled in part from documents published under the auspices of the Baltimore and Ohio and Canton Companies. The exertions made to develop these ter- minal facilities and build up the trade and commerce of Baltimore should convince all that the owners are really in earnest, and have implicit confidence in the bright future of their city. They act with a faith that the future of Baltimore is whatever its citizens may choose to make it, and that natural advantages, superior to those of dny other seaport on the Atlantic seaboard are supple- mented by new and varied elements of prosperity and development. 74 DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF FURTHER (VI.) DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF FURTHER DEVELOPMENT AT EXISTING TERMINI. Allusion has now been made at some length and it is hoped truthfully and impartially to the early foundation, growth and present condition of Baltimore, to its advantages of location for commercial and manufacturing purposes, to the situation of its harbor, its railroad connections and its present terminal facilities, it will now be demonstrated that there are difficulties in the way of further development at existing termini. And first as regards Locust Point the present tide water terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It is true that the company has utilized to the fullest extent the area of eighty acres at its disposal, it is true that the labyrinth of tracks systematically and economically arranged, bears abundant evidence equally with the magnificent warehouses and elevators and the substantial piers to the consistency with which the managers of the road have pursued the idea of placing the commerce of Baltimore on a firm and it might be truly said immovable basis, but the traffic has increased so rapidly since these improvements were first inaugurated, that even now from all appearances the steamship piers are taxed to their utmost capacity and a much larger water frontage would if practicable be secured to meet the requirements of an increasing business. The question arises can it be secured ? and even if secured can it be rendered available for the purposes contemplated without an expenditure of labor, material and money hardly in accordance with the require- ments? The site now occupied by private coal wharves might be purchased and warehouses for storage or commission merchants erected thereon, piers and wharves might be built a;t some iso- lated i)oints along the southern front of the present terminus, but the extension of such facilities would only enable the com- pany to provide for the grain and other merchandise traffic, and the coal, lumber and petroleum traffic must be sent to some other port equally convenient as far as depth of water and DEVELOPMENT AT EXISTING TERMINI. 75 rail communication are concerned. The policy of concentrating at one point, petroleum, coal, lumber, general merchandise and grain is justly liable to criticism, the risk of accident and loss by fire, in the face of every precaution to the contrary, is intensified, and a railroad company is culpable for hazarding the success of its future operations by neglecting to discriminate and separate its various classes of traffic. It must be remembered, that the pros- pective business of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and its western connections, is destined to be much more diversified than formerly, in consequence of the much larger area of country which will be rendered tributary to it; each special item of traffic has its idiosyncracy, so to speak, and the volume of each will increase in a ratio corresponding with the facilities furnished for its storage, if necessary, and for its prompt and economical handling. It is not merely enough that there shall be unrivaled elevators for the grain trade, or substantial warehouses for the coffee and sugar; provision has also to bo made for the cotton crop of the South, for the tobacco of Ohio and Kentucky, for the wool of Illinois and other Western states, for cheese, bacon, lard, jjacked meats and miscellaneous articles, which now enter very largely into our present European export trade. Traffic will converge to tlie point where the greatest facilities are furnished, and heavy outlays will be necessary to perfect the plan which has been so auspiciously and systematically commenced. The secret of success in dealing with the public, is to anticipate their wants; and if this rule holds good generally, how much more applicable is it to a railroad cor- poration, whose prosperity hinges on a correct appreciation of the public requirements and an intelligent understanding of the future. It may be, that these anticipations as to the prospective require- ments and increased traffic of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad are sanguine, and premature ; it may be, that the growth of the import and export trade will not be as rapid as has been supposed from the comparative returns of the past three years; it may be, that the existing facilities at the terminus will not be severely taxed by the business originating on 268 miles of new road, all of which will concentrate at Baltimore ; it may be, that the coal oil trade will remain stationery, and that the coal and lumber trans- portation will be identical in volume with that of former years ; — 76 DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF FURTHER all these contingencies are possible — but, are tliey probable ? Is it not more resonable to anticipate, that with the country recover- ing from the abnormal condition of depression under which it has labored during the past year, as a result of the panic; with the South especially, restored to affluence and prosperity, business will be transacted on a larger scale than ever heretofore, and a fresh impe- tus will be given, both to European trade and to all other branches of industry ? The careful student of such matters, arguing from analogy, and with a knowledge of the indomitable energy and pcrscverence of the American people will, it is thought, candidly admit that anticipations relative to the accommodations which will be required at Locust Point within the next two years, are not unfounded; and that, in providing for the grain and general mer- chandise traffic, apart from the coal, lumber and petroleum, the existing terminal facilities will be taxed to the utmost. The question naturally arises, how and where can the heavy traffic in the three last named articles be accommodated ; without increasing the cost of transportation beyond 'what it is at present? But, before answering this pertinent question, it may be assumed that it is impolitic to concentrate coal, lumber and petroleum in the same yard with general merchandise, or even in such close prox- imity to a large city, as Locust Point. An outlet for coal, lumber and petroleum can be found at Curtis' Bay, by a line which will save at least five miles of rail transportation, and where, at a moderate expense, wharves and other facilities can be fur- nished close to natural deep water, extending along two and a half miles of water front. If the owners of coal wharves at Locust Point can dispose of their property there at a very remu- nerative figure and procure equal, if not superior, facilities for shipment at a much reduced cost, is it not reasonable to suppose that they will avail themselves of the opportunity? If the lum- ber of Michigan and Indiana can be shipped as promptly and economically from Curtis' Bay as from the wharves of the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad at Locust Point, all lumber for export would concentrate there. The same rule would hold good to petroleum, only in a greater degree, because at Curtis' Bay and its vicinity refineries could be erected, and the manufacture of coal oil, naptha, &c., carried on to an unlimited extent. A railroad can DEVELOPMENT AT EXISTING TEEMINI. 77 be built from Curtis' Bay to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad Company at or near Relay, a distance of five and a half miles. The transfer of the heavy tonnage in coal, lumber and petroleum to this short line Avould relieve very materially the main stem of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and would enable its managers to leave the track from Relay to Locust Point or Cam- den entirely for passengers and for general merchandise. Again, at Canton, on the east side of the city, where it has been anticipated by the owners of the property and others interested in real estate, that all the railroads other than the Baltimore and Ohio would concentrate their business : there are serious difficul- ties in the way of further development which cannot be readily ignored. There is no doubt that Canton is a valuable location for manufactories of all descriptions, and the enhanced value of real estate will compensate the Canton Company for any risk which they have undertaken in making the investment and developino- the property. The Union Railroad and Tunnel can also be made remunerative, from the tolls collected on through traffic and from the charges on raw material, coal, &c., consumed by the various manufacturing establishments. The wharf property can also be made available for the shipment of goods manufactured at Canton, and doubtless many canning and packing establishments will be erected in proximity to the water front, where coasting craft bring- ing oysters, fish, and other produce to a market, can return laden with fertilizers. It will also be an available location for iron fur- naces and rolling mills, but it is very much doubted whether Canton will ever become such a general shipping point for foreign trade as has been intimated and anticipated by its owners. By reference to the map accompanying this pamphlet, it will be seen that the railroads centering at Baltimore, with one exception, reach the city limits on the north and west; here are their natural and geographical termini, and it is hardly to be antici- pated that the managers of these lines will force traffic down to Canton and through the city at a heavy rate of toll, when they can utilize their own existing lines to better advantage and obtain an outlet to tide- water at a much more moderate expense than they are now subjected to. Take the Northern Central Railway for example. Its managers have, it is true, leased, tS DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF FUETHER as stated above, some valuable water frontage from the Cauton Company, and it was stated some two years ago that they con- templated an immediate expenditure of $1,G00,000 to provide terminal facilities in the shape of grain elevators, coal wharves, &c. ; but, up to the present time, no such expenditure has been made, and whether the delay is attributable to an uncertainty about leasing their road to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, or whether they have taken better counsel on the subject, is imma- terial to the point at issue ; one significant fact is indisputable, viz: that, in the face of city ordinances and contracts, looking to the removal and discontinuance of the old horse and mule tracks down Central avenue to Fell's Point, the tonnage, or rather the greater bulk of it, is carried to tide-water by horse power, and the Union Railroad, only receives a small proportion of the business. Had the Northern Central Railway Company a pecuniary interest in the Union Railroad and Canton property, the case might be different, and the traffic to tide-water might be diverted from its peculiar geographical route ; but the present interest of the North- ern Central Railway Company, is to utilize its own track and th<^ Baltimore and Potomac tunnel as far as practicable, if, by such a course, they can obtain a greater direct revenue for an enterprise in which they are pecuniarily interested, and at the same time procure equal tide-water facilities for an export and import trade. For example ; under the existing tariff over the Union Railroad to Canton, a car load of coal or other produce would pay an arbi- trary fixed toll of $2,00 per car. All this accrues to an outside and independent corporation. If the same car load were taken through the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, and thence by a line projected on the western limits of the city to the new tide- water terminus at Curtis' Bay, a large proportion of the tariff would accruedirectly to the tunnel, and render that costly property more remunerative; in fact, the Northern Central Railway Company would be instrumental in building up, for an enterprise in which they are deeply interested, a traffic which, if tributary to Canton would result in no pecuniary benefit to themselves. The cost ox the Tunnel proper, was $2,500,000, and it may be estimated that the other works from a point v/here the Union Railroad diverges to a point west of the Tunnel, where the new projected "West side DEVELOPMENT AT EXISTING TERMINI. 79 Railroad will run to Curtis' Bay, have cost $500,000 more ; hence this short section of road should be made to earn at any rate $260,000 gross, in order to provide the interest on the cost and the annual repairs. The coal, lumber and petroleum traffic origi- nating on the line of the Northern Central Railway, if carried ' from the junction with the Union Railroad to tide- water at Cur- tis' Bay, at the same tariif as that fixed by the Union Railroad Company, would at once produce a revenue for the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Company, amply sufficient to meet the greater proportion of the interest on the cost of construction together with the expenses of maintenance, while in succeeding years, the reve- nue, after deducting operating expenses, would be in all i)robability largely in excess of interest requirements. Of course, there may be contracts in existence which prevent the consummation of such a scheme, and the Northern Central Railway Company may be obligated to adhere to agreements which are manifestly at variance with their own present and prospective interests ; but if such is not the case, and they are untrammelled, except in so far as a lease of property at Canton is concerned, the proper course to be pur- sued would appear to be remarkably plain and easy of solution. A certain amount of traffic will naturally go to Canton, to and from the various manufacturing establishments now in existence there; grain may and will, in all probability,^ find its way to the Gard- ner elevator at that point; but the bulk of the tonnage should, under ordinary circumstances, pay tribute to the road with which the Northern Central Railway Company is peculiarly identified. Again, it seems unnatural that traffic, originating on the line of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and its Southern connections destined for shipment from Baltimore, should, be sent fully six miles out of its way to tide- water at a cost which must increase its cost to the consumer very materially. All the Southern, trade could be sent to tide- water at Curtis' Bay on the line to be con- structed from Relay to the water front, (,5|^ miles,) where ample storage facilities will be furnished for cotton, tobacco, hemp and all other Southern products. The Western Maryland Railroad is also a completed line of railroad terminating at Baltimore, and it was always imagined that Canton was its, objective point, and that its tide-water terminus would be on the east side of the city. 80 DIFFICULTIES IX THE WAY OF FURTHER To obtain control of the traffic of that road, and to build up at Canton a large depot for the products of the Cumberland Coal Basin from Williamsport, was the cherished idea of the Union Railroad Company, but this very plan appears to have been unin- tentionally yet decisively defeated by the geographical location of the Western Maryland extension from Owings' Mills to Fulton street, at the west end of the Baltimore and Potomac tunnel, and by the prohibitory tariff between that point and tide-water at Canton. Forty cents per ton is a charge, which precludes compe- tition, and efforts are now being made to secure an economical line to tide-water on the west side of the city. Surveys have been made of a line from Curtis' Bay to a connection with the Western Mary- land Railroad ; a company has been duly organized, under the gene- ral law of the kState, to prosecute the work, and there is little doubt that in the early spring Cumberland coal can be transported to tide-water from Williamsport at a rate which will enable the Wes- tern Maryland Railroad Company to double, if not quadruple, its existing coal business, and to compete on equal terms for coal traffic with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. In alluding thus at considerable length to the causes which must, in all probability, prevent such a concentration of traffic at Canton as has been anticipated, no mention has been made of the fact that in consequence of the heavy filling and piling out to deep water, the cost of construction of terminal facilities must be largely in excess of what it State ov Maryland, City ov Baltimore, to wit: I hereby certify, that on this twenty-fifth day of September, A. D. 1874, before the subscriber, a Justice of the Peace of said State, in and for the City aforesaid, personally appeared Joseph W. Jenkins, Joshua Hartshorne, Hiram Kaufman, William S. Eayner, William C/ Pennington, and severally acknow- ledged the foregoing instrument to be their respective act and deed. GEO. MTcCAFFEAY, J. P. W92 •3^ V ^* ^^ S. • O t* » ^sp^fl^ "^ O , "\yty . JUNE :?s? -^