Emmanuel Mehr: This week for Baltimore Histories, the 3rd installment of my series “B&O to Inner Harbor: Building Baltimore through Public-Private Partnerships.” It focuses on the harmful capitalist leadership of B&O president John W. Garrett & Mayor William D. Schaefer: www.baltimorehistories.com/post/b-o-to-...

This week for Baltimore Histories, the 3rd installment of my series “B&O to Inner Harbor: Building Baltimore through Public-Private Partnerships.” It focuses on the harmful capitalist leadership of B&O president John W. Garrett & Mayor William D. Schaefer: www.baltimorehistories.com/post/b-o-to-...

B&O to Inner Harbor: Building Baltimore through Public-Private Partnerships — Part Threewww.baltimorehistories.com BHW 57: March 2, 2024 The election of John W. Garrett to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s (B&O) board of directors in 1855 signaled a drastic shift in company leadership from public-private cooperation...

This is pretty good, albeit a little hard on Garrett, you have to remember that Garrett oversaw the transition of railroad from its pioneer era to its status as a Trunk road. At this time the PRR and the NY Central were emerging as competitors to the B&O. Railroad capitalism was shifting in this era

Garrett’s main successes were holding the railroad together during the Civil War and the post war transformation of the Railroad to become a Trunk line to Chicago by expanding operations in the mid west. The privatisation of the B&O were necessary precursors to these things to occur.

Indeed. However, I think it's fair to acknowledge privatization as a precursor to future investment did not make privatization any less harmful to initial public investors/residents. Re: holding together, I think Garrett wanted to side w/ Confederacy in the Civil War but Hopkins pressured him not to

JW Garrett is a fascinating case study because he was a natural southern sympathiser during the succession crisis, Right up until the Confederates started fucking with his railroad. Garrett worked very closely with Lincoln in coordinating railroad logistics and became a core part of the war effort

Like the moment Stonewall Jackson blew up the Bridge at Harpers Ferry in June 1861 was the moment they lost any chance of retaining support of the B&O railroad. A big reason why the Confederates lost is that the Union won the railroad logistics war. This bridge was rebuilt in just a few months

All great points! Thanks for reading and for the constructive feedback.

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