Information Panel: The Race to Ohio

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Rail transportation in the United Staes began in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 4, 1828, when Charles Carroll, the only living signer of the Declaration of Independence , laid the cornerstone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
On the same day President John Quincy Adams turned the first spade of earth along the Potomac River for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
The race was underway as the progressive railroad and the traditional canal struggled to become the first to connect the Ohio Valley with the east coast. Harpers Ferry was one of the first milestones of that race.