History

Baltimore and Potomac Railroad

railroad

Also known as B. & P.; Pennsylvania Railroad (Washington line)

Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary linking Washington and Baltimore, whose Washington terminal was the Baltimore and Potomac station. In 1889 it inaugurated a through-coach service to Ocean City on the Peninsula Express, leaving Washington at 1:17 p.m. on weekdays and running to the beach without change of cars; the Pennsylvania Railroad sold $5 Friday round-trip excursion tickets on the same train from July 12 to August 30, 1889. It is the road that made Ocean City a same-day Washington destination.

In the record (1)

  1. 1898

    What it cost to reach Ocean City in 1898: $3.60 round trip from Washington on Fridays, $1.50 from Baltimore on a Sunday steamer, 50 cents from Bishop, Md.

    The 1898 excursion market, from four railroads and one steamship line: (1) The Baltimore & Ohio ran a special from Washington via Baltimore 'Every Friday, 3 O'Clock' all season — 'Round Trip, $3.60. Tickets good to return till Sunday night.' Earlier in June the same trip was sold at $7 including two days' board at the Atlantic Hotel, booked through John F. Waggaman's Washington office. (2) The B.C.&A. Railway advertised 'Season tickets from Baltimore, $4.00. Friday and Saturday, returning Monday following, $3.00.' (3) Der Deutsche Correspondent announced the season's first Sunday steamer excursion from Baltimore on 19 June 1898 at $1.50 return, leaving Pier 4, Light Street, at 8 a.m. and back at 11 p.m. (4) The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore ran Thursday one-day excursions to Rehoboth and Ocean City on 21 July and 4, 11, 18 and 25 August: Wilmington $1.25, Dover and Milford $1.00, Georgetown 75c, Frankford and Selbyville 65c, Bishop, Md. 50c, children under twelve half fare; the special reached Ocean City at 11.00 a.m. and left again at 4.50 p.m. (5) The B.&O.'s national seashore excursions on 14 and 28 July and 11 and 25 August carried Ocean City, Md. alongside Atlantic City, Cape May, Sea Isle City and Ocean City, N.J. — $7.50 round trip from Cumberland, Md., $9.00 from Somerset, Pa., tickets good twelve days.

    Fifty cents from Bishop and nine dollars from western Pennsylvania: 1898 is the first year the whole price ladder is visible at once, and the first year Ocean City, Md. appears in a national railroad's seashore package instead of being a Chesapeake day trip.

    Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway

    Source · checked 2026-08-06