Chesapeake Bay was not feasible. It was consequently of little
moment whether the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal could be built
across the Alleghanies or not, for, even if it could have been
carried through the Great Plains or to the Pacific, Baltimore
was, for topographical reasons, out of the running.

The men of Baltimore now gave one of the most striking
illustrations of spirit and pluck ever exhibited by the people of
any city. They refused to accept defeat. If engineering science
held a means of overcoming the natural disadvantages of their
position, they were determined to adopt that means, come what
would of hardship, difficulty, and expenditure. If roads and
canals would not serve the city on the Chesapeake, what of the
railroad on which so many experiments were being made in England?

The idea of controlling the trade of the West by railroads was
not new. As early as February, 1825, certain astute
Pennsylvanians had advocated building a railroad to Pittsburgh
instead of a canal, and in a memorial to the Legislature they had
set forth the theory that a railroad could be built in one-third
of the time and could be operated with one-third of the number of
employees required by a canal, that it would never be frozen, and
that its cost of construction would be less. But these arguments
did not influence the majority, who felt that to follow the line
of least resistance and to do as others had done would involve
the least hazard. But Baltimore, with her back against the wall,
did not have the alternative of a canal. It was a leap into the
unknown for her or commercial stagnation.

It is regrettable that, as Baltimore began to break this fresh