The first manufactures in Maryland, outside of the products of household industry, were those of iron, and the Principio Furnace in Cecil County has been in operation for over 150 years. The country adjacent to the Chesapeake possesses neither coal nor water power. The central portion of the State is well provided with water power, and the far western portion with coal. Maryland enjoys a strategic position from her nearness also to the sources of production of raw material. From her great facilities in water carriage, and from her good railroad connection with every part of the con tinent, she possesses a very favorable position in regard to manufactures. The factories are mostly established in Baltimore, Cumberland, Hagerstown and Frederick, and in the vicinity of these cities. Large quantities of flour are ground in mills along the Patapsco River, and in Frederick and Carroll counties, and there is much canning of oysters and fish, fruit and vegetables, in Baltimore, and, indeed, through out the State. Textile fabrics, especially cot ton duck, are manufactured near Baltimore, and ready-made clothing is extensively made in that city. Bricks, lumber, straw hats, shoes, shirts, cement, copper manufactures, glass, etc., are manufactured there. Large quantities of munitions of war have recently been made in Baltimore, in establishments which had previ ously made articles of iron and steel for peace ful purposes. Cigars, smoking tobacco, chew ing gum and snuff are also largely manufac tured in that city. The Bromo Seltzer Com pany and the Crown Cork and Seal Company have large factories in Baltimore. This city is the leading market of the South for the manu facture and distribution of fertilizers, of drugs and of chemicals. Large breweries and pot teries are also located there.
The Marylanders of pro vincial times built small sailing vessels, the most interesting types of which were the bugeye and five log canoes, which are still used in the oyster trade on the Chesapeake. After Baltimore was founded, it became a centre of ship-building; and the clipper ships which came from its shipyards were famous around the world for their beauty and speed. They carried on trade with South America, and made voyages to the Pacific, as well as to Europe. When steel ships succeeded wooden, there was estab lished by the Pennsylvania Steel Company, about 1888, an important ship-building plant at Sparrow's Point, near the mouth of the Patapsco River, 12 miles below Baltimore. This plant has recently been bought by the Bethlehem Steel Company, and has been very much en larged during the Great War. Another im portant ship-building corporation is the Balti more Dry Dock Company, located at Baltimore, on Whetstone Point near Fort McHenry. There are several lesser shipyards, and the out put of Baltimore in the way of ships is quite important.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,— the oldest one in America,— was chartered in 1827, and is still operated under its original charter. In 1830, the first locomo tive in the United States was run over this road between Baltimore and Ellicott City.
Originally intended to extend to the Ohio River, it now runs to Philadelphia, to Chicago and to Saint Louis. A branch line runs from Cumberland to Pittsburgh. The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail road, chartered in 1836, and the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, chartered in 1853, now form part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, as do the Northern Central, running from Baltimore through Harrisburg to Rochester, which was chartered in 1854, and the Frederick and Penn sylvania Line Railroad, chartered in 1867. Another series of branches of the Pennsylvania system permeate the Eastern Shore. A third Important railroad. the Western Maryland was chartered in 1852, and now runs from Baltimore to Hagerstown, to Cumberland, whence it goes by two branches into West Virginia and to Pittsburgh. The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad runs from Baltimore to Delta. Elec tric roads lead from Baltimore to Washington and to Annapolis, and another electric road runs from Frederick to Hagerstown, and also to Thurmont. The city of Baltimore has an extensive trolley which also serves the suburbs. The first electric railway in the United States, was constructed in Baltimore in 1885. Horse cars had been introduced there in 1860, and they were superseded by cable cars (be ginning in 1889), and trolley cars beginning in 1892. James Rumsey made experiments in the propulsion of boats by steam, in the latter part of the 18th century, upon the Potomac River. The bay and its rivers were the first highways, and several lines of steamboats run from Balti more to the heads of navigation of these rivers, while ocean-going vessels ply regularly, north ward and southward, along the coast and to foreign lands. In 1844 the first line of tele graph constructed in the world was operated between Baltimore and Washington, and tel egraph and telephone lines now reach every part of the State. The roads were poor unt'l about 1800, when an era set in of very con siderable construction of macadamized turn pike in the western part of the State. Most of the turnpikes have now become part of an ex cellent system of State roads constructed be tween 1905 and 1915, which links together every county in Maryland. The desire for the im provement of the Potomac River, so as to render it navigable, a project in which George Washington took great interest, led to the be ginning of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1826. Designed to cross the Allegheny Moun tains, it was never completed further than from Georgetown, D. C., to Cumberland and it is now chiefly used for the transportation of coal from the mines to tidewater. A canal along the Susquehanna has long been abandoned, but one for ships across the Eastern Shore, extend ing from the head of the Elk River to the Delaware River, is still used by daily trips of steamboats from Baltimore to Philadelphia, and is expected soon under Federal ownership to be much increased in draft.