Railroads are permanent roads laid with rails, commonly in one or more pairs of continuous lines forming tracks, on which locomotives and cars are run for the transportation of passengers, freight, and mail. Railroads provided the most dramatic transportation growth during the 1800s. They facilitated the movement of people, goods, and information, decreased shipping costs and time, and strengthened the links between the Old Northwest and the East. The first railroads were started in the 1820s in Britain. Baltimore, the third largest city in the nation in 1827, hadn't invested in a canal. Knowing that it was 200 miles closer to the frontier than New York was, it sought out to develop a railway. By creating a railway, Baltimore thought it could make the city more competitive with New York and its Erie Canal in transporting people and goods to the West. Due to its ease of access to the frontier, Baltimore sought out to fulfill its investment of a railway which gave birth to the first railroad chartered in the United States, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, built in 1828 and extending approximately 73 miles.
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