the City of Baltimore that portion of the Western Trade which has lately been diverted from it by the introduction of steam navigation and other causes."
The plan of Thomas and Brown comprehended the building of a railway from Baltimore to the Ohio. Both men had brothers in England who had forwarded reports of railway experiments there. The matter had received considerable previous attention and the great proposition was discussed with an intense interest. From all the data which were gathered by the correspondents abroad, the proposition was wholly reasonable. And in its realization the promoters would find a relish intensified a hundred-fold, because of the rumors circulated that Baltimore must resign her commercial position to Alexandria or Georgetown because of the building and influence of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The two railways then in operation in the United States were at Quincy, Massachusetts, a road to a quarry; and at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, from the Lehigh River to the Summit Coal Mine, nine miles distant. As means of conveying
