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Railroad History in Bladensburg
In its infancy in America, the railroad came to Bladensburg. In 1833, construction began in Baltimore on the 32-mile-long Washington line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It originally passed directly through Bladensburg, however, the main line was later altered to bypass the town, leaving it serviced only by a secondary line. The first train on the new Washington line ran on August 25, 1835. Eight hundred passengers, including numerous dignitaries, boarded 18 cars pulled by four new locomotives. They rode to Bladensburg where they were met by a trainful of Washington city officials, who then accompanied them to the terminal in Washington, D.C.
On April 29, 1851, Bladensburg once again witnessed railroad history. On that day, a railroad car powered by electricity from batteries (in a sense, a locomotive) traveled from Washington to Bladensburg and back again. This first electric railroad car was the invention of Dr. Charles Grafton Page, senior examiner for the U.S. Patent Office, professor of chemistry and pharmacy, and public treasurer. |