Mount Vernon Cultural Walk: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Building

Be Here Stories

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.explorebaltimore.org/tours. Located at 2 North Charles Street The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was the world’s first long-distance commercial railroad, founded in 1827 by Baltimore business leaders in a daring bid to compete with other eastern cities in forging a trade route to the west. Its construction was a series of firsts: from the first railroad station (current site of the B&O Museum) to the first railroad to cross the Appalachian Mountains and reach the Ohio River. The B&O turned Baltimore into a leading commercial center, as businesses sent goods west and brought raw materials back to feed growing industries. Its partnership with a German steamship line made Baltimore the nation’s second largest immigrant port for many years. Its investors—including Johns Hopkins, Enoch Pratt, and William Walters—used their proceeds to build the institutions that bear their names. After the Great Fire of 1904 destroyed its offices, the B&O opened a new headquarters in 1906. The structure’s imposing size made a statement about the company’s power and wealth, while the Beaux-Arts architecture typified the buildings that arose after the fire. Sculptures of Mercury (the Roman god of commerce) and an allegorical figure representing Progress (cradling a locomotive) top the entrance.