The B&O by-pass through Bladensburg was once the main line of the Washington-Baltimore Railroad, completed in 1832, the first railroad in the United States. Congress had refused the railroad permission to enter the National Capital, and Bladensburg became its southern terminus for the discharge of passengers and freight. The ban was lifted in 1835. Along its right-of-way, Samuel F. P. Morse strung the first telegraph line. The first standard gauge electric locomotive held it's trial run on this track in 1867. The locomotive was powered by standard grove wet batteries and reached a speed of nineteen miles an hour. |
