Beside the Baltimore and Ohio railroad with its Washington branch,
Baltimore is also about to have a railroad through York, to the
Susquehanna, opposite to Columbia, the length of which will be 73
miles. The object of this road is to contest with Philadelphia the
commerce of the valley of the Susquehanna. The Pennsylvania canal
with its various branches forms a canalisation of this river and its
tributaries above Columbia. But below Columbia, there are several
rapids and shoals which interrupt the navigation of the river, except
for downward-bound boats in the highest stages of the water. The
Philadelphia merchants, fearing that all the works executed at a great
expense by Pennsylvania, would turn out much less advantageously
for them than for the Baltimoreans, as these last have, indeed,
openly boasted, opposed for a long time both the canalisation of the
Susquehanna from Columbia to its mouth, and the permission to construct
that section of a railroad from Baltimore to Columbia, which would
lie within the limits of Pennsylvania. Their opposition has, however,
been at last overcome, and charters have been granted authorising the
construction of both works. The railroad company, to which Maryland has
just made a loan of 1,000,000 dollars, is pushing on the railway with
great activity.