Wheeling Intelligencer
January 4, 1853
There has seldom occurred in the annals of our city an event of more importance than the opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which is to be celebrated on the 11th and 12th of this month. For near a quarter of a century the project of connecting the city of Baltimore with the Ohio River at Wheeling, has been claiming the attention of our citizens and the public, and now we are called upon to celebrate in a few days the accomplishment of the great event, so important in its bearing upon the great Commercial interests of the entire Union.
As is ever the case in the projection of great, or novel enterprises, the best??? enumeration of the project was at first received as the wild and chimerical enterprise of men who, if not crazy, were certainly visionary. The Directors however, knowing from the history of the past that they were but reaping the common rewards usually bestowed under such circumstances, determined to press forward, well knowing that success was the only means which could ensure them an impartial hearing before the grand commercial assize of the country. Year after year they struggled on, difficulty after difficulty vanished before the vigor and constancy of their efforts, until in the year 1853 they stand upon the banks of the Ohio, the first comers of the band of pioneers, who have for years past been seeking to tap the mighty valley of the West, and draw its rich products into the lap of the Atlantic. May we not confidently hope that this Company will reap the full reward of their labors and that the city of Baltimore will realize from this connection all that she can wish, and even more than she expected.
In times past, controversies have arisen between the company and this city as to matters connected with the road. They have been settled all, and we now can bury all feeling of difference which the past may have engendered, and look to the future, and to it only, and in it we can see but one rational conclusion and that is, the prospects of our city, of Baltimore, and of this company, are indissolubly connected by that chain which is stronger than any other, the chain of mutual and dependant interests. Let us in the future remember this, and act accordingly, and above all, let us prepare to give those of the citizens of Baltimore who may visit us on the 11th, a welcome worthy of the occasion, of our city, and of the important and intimate connection which this great improvement must produce between our city and Baltimore.