Chesapeake Bay Bridge, longest single span bridge over water
When the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is built, it is the longest continuous steel span in the country.
Transportation
College Park Airport is oldest continuously used airport
Wilbur Wright gives flying lessons at the College Park airstrip and civilian planes begin regular use. It becomes the most continuously used airport in the US.
Baltimore City is unique in the U.S. at 1850
In 1850 Baltimore, America’s third largest city, is a singular urban mix of immigrants, free and enslaved Blacks, white leadership and energetic industry. As a border state it is an example of the country’s divisions and challenges before the Civil War.
C&O Canal is an engineering marvel
The C&O Canal completes construction on Lock 24 and the Seneca Acqueduct. Working by hand, the workers complete a unique stone aqueduct combined with a lift lock in 1832.
B&O Railroad begins
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad begins with a cornerstone in Baltimore and an initial trip to Ellicott City in 1827. The train line crosses the Thomas Viaduct, the first large arched and curved stone bridge.
Casselman River Bridge is the largest stone arch bridge in 1813, built on the new National Road.
The elegant Casselman River Bridge is the largest stone arch bridge in America in 1813.
Agricultural machines begin
Jacob R. Thomas, a Carroll County farmer, assembles a wheat reaping machine and tries it out locally. It doesn’t cut well, but the first experiment with a mechanical reaper ushers in the age of agricultural machinery.
The National Road West is the government’s first project
MD builds the beginning of an interstate road, a toll road from Baltimore to Cumberland and first federal project. Federal govt. funds next road segment west to Ohio.
