The Great Road: The Building of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Nation's First Railroad, 1828-1853 - Paperbackby James D. Dilts (Author) This masterful, richly illustrated account of the planning and building of the most important and influential early American railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio, is an essential contribution not only to railyway history but also to the broader history of the development of the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. There was no precedent for the building of the B&O. The construction of the 380 mile line from