Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Is this Part of a John Denver Song?

The train on the front of this post card is entering Wheeling, West Virginia. If you look very closely - I used a magnifying glass - you can see two boys greeting the train as it leaves the tunnel. https://eastwheelingreunionassoc.com/b-o-railroad-in-wheeling/eastwheelingreunionassoc.com The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Wheeling in 1818. Eighteen years later Wheeling was designated a US Port of Entry. In addition, the people of Wheeling were determined to have Wheeling become the western terminus of the B&O Railroad. They were well aware of the importance the railroad would have to the city’s urban development. The mountainous, 379 mile distance from Baltimore to Wheeling was seen as insurmountable by many engineers. The Allegheny Mountains intimidated all but the heartiest of railroad engineers. Newspapers reported that the route from Cumberland to Wheeling was so bad that even a buffalo couldn’t make the trek “without shaking out its teeth.” On Christmas Eve 1852, the last spike was driven on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore and the Ohio River. The event occurred at Rosby’s Rock near Moundsville. The Baltimore and Ohio—known as the B&O—changed the course of West Virginia history. It produced the first coal boom in the northern part of the state and led to the rapid growth of towns like Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg, Grafton, Parkersburg, Wheeling, and Clarksburg. During the Civil War, it played into the military strategies of both sides, and its tracks were repeatedly damaged and then repaired. When West Virginia statehood leaders carved out the new state’s borders, the eastern panhandle counties were included primarily to keep the B&O in West Virginia and outside of Confederate Virginia. After the war and well into the 20th century, the B&O was a major force in the economies of West Virginia and the nation. By mid-century, though, it was suffering economically. In 1973, the B&O name disappeared when it was merged with the Chesapeake and Ohio and Western Maryland railways to form the new Chessie System, which is now CSX Transportation. Even though I know nothing about the publisher or the printer of this post card, I will show you the back of it here:
You can see that it was mailed in September of 1911.

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