Tag: B&O Relay House (Relay House MD)

Wikipedia says: The Relay House was a 3-story, 32-room restaurant-inn-stables, built for the use of horse-drawn cars traveling between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills (13 miles (21 km)); this was the first part built of what would become the Railroad’s main line to Wheeling, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia). The main cargo at that time was barrels of flour from the mills, taken to Baltimore. Passenger service was also provided.

The “relays” were horses, that would be swapped at the Relay House.

In 1830 there took place the famous, perhaps mythical, race between a horse and a demonstration locomotive engine, the Tom Thumb, the first locomotive built in America. The race began at Baltimore and ended at the Relay House. The engine misfunctioned and the horse won, but the viability of steam locomotives was successfully demonstrated.