Baltimore to Fort McHenry Great American Railroad Journeys

I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of America

with a new travelling companion.

HORN HONKS

Published in 1879, my Appletons' General Guide

will steer me to everything that's novel,

beautiful, memorable or curious in the United States.

Amen.

As I cross the continent, I'll discover America's Gilded Age,

when powerful tycoons launched a railway boom...

BELL RINGS ..that tied the nation together

and carved out its future as a superpower.

As I continue my journey south of the Mason-Dixon Line,

I'd like to explore an early example of the USA's highest virtue -

that is to say, philanthropy -

and while on the subject of origins,

with its talk of "rockets' red glare"

and "bombs bursting in air",

what is the American national anthem about?

On this journey, I began in the cradle of independence,

Philadelphia, and continued through the key American Civil War

battlefield of Gettysburg.

I'm turning south to Baltimore in Maryland,

before taking in the nation's capital, Washington DC.

I'll then continue on to Richmond, Virginia,

finishing in Jamestown,

the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Today, I'm exploring Baltimore via the city's rail networks,

starting with the first passenger railroad in the United States,

and crossing town to the city's most famous institution.

After taking a drive through the gritty streets of East Baltimore,

I'll end at the spot where the American national anthem was born.

'Along the way, I'll discover the origin of America's railroads.'

They had known of this thing called a "railroad" in England,

and they decided to basically

do the next best thing to inventing it yourself - is steal that.

We're cousins, after all.

I'll find out about life on the wrong side of the tracks...

I'd been to close to 200 funerals by the time I graduated high school.

..and sink my claws into a local delicacy.

Can you give me any idea what's in that sauce?

Absolutely not. That's a secret recipe.

THEY LAUGH

My next stop will be Baltimore, which Appletons' tells me

"is the chief city of Maryland

"and one of the most important in the United States.

"The present site of Baltimore was chosen in 1729,

"and its name was given in honour of Lord Baltimore,

"the proprietor of Maryland."

Now, I didn't know that, and the state of Maryland was named

after the wife of King Charles I,

so, one way and another,

British aristocracy and royalty have left an important mark

on the world's greatest republic.

I'm arriving in this city on an Amtrak service -

America's principle passenger rail operator -

which, in the 1970s, inherited a network spanning the entire country.

That network owes much to the city of Baltimore,

the birthplace of the passenger railroad.

Baltimore Penn Station really is a treat for the weary traveller,

with these superb glass domes in its ceiling.

It was built more than a century ago and decorated with Tiffany glass.

Fantastic!

Baltimore's fortunes have for ever been tied to its location,

sitting on a deep natural harbour of Chesapeake Bay

which leads into the Atlantic Ocean.

In the early 19th century, the city grew to be

one of the largest seaports on the eastern seaboard,

and when the railroad linked to Baltimore to the expanding Midwest,

it multiplied as a centre of industry and commerce.

For 20 years, in the mid-19th century,

it was the second-largest city in North America.

My guidebook tells me that,

"Two lines of European steamers now start from Baltimore's harbour,

"and through her, two great arteries of traffic -

"the Baltimore and Ohio and the Northern Central Railroads.

"The city is successfully competing for the trade

"of the north and north-west."

As the United States expanded to the west,

some statesmen feared that the country was becoming too big

and would fall apart,

but the railroads seemed to offer the solution.

As settlers spread westward, connections with those

remote territories became increasingly important.

One railroad originating in Baltimore rose to the challenge.

I've arranged a meeting with David Shackelford,

chief curator of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum.

-Dave, hello.

-How are you?

We meet in a spectacular roundhouse.

I mean, I assume it's an old turntable,

but built on the grand scale.

Oh, grand scale, indeed.

I mean, this is truly a crown jewel in Baltimore's railroad history,

and this particular roundhouse was built in 1884

and was designed as a passenger-car roundhouse.

Now, what was the origin of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad?

The origin dates back to the 1820s

and it's a pretty significant period in Baltimore's history

because it's a rival seaport,

so it's battling against New York, Boston, Charlestown, Philadelphia,

and basically it's all about commerce -

moving things from the interior of the United States

to the port and then out.

So they had known of this thing called a "railroad" in England,

and they decided to basically do the next best thing

to invents it yourself is steal that,

bring it to the United States and basically build their own railroad.

So the Baltimore and Ohio is actually charted in the 1820s,

before the Liverpool to Manchester Railway is opened,

which is reckoned to be the first intercity railway,

but I take it that it's not open before that point.

Construction begins July 4, 1828,

and it would actually begin service in 1830,

so, at that point, it's kind of interesting,

because there's only 23 miles of rail in the entire country,

and 13 miles would run from Baltimore to

a little town named Ellicott's Mills, Maryland,

so, in the grand scheme,

23 miles would grow to hundreds of thousands of miles.

With 3 million from investors,

the B&O Railroad expanded gradually at first,

but, by the time of my guidebook, it had spread across the Midwest,

all the way to the Mississippi River.

The first commercial rail route, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,

laid the foundations for what was to become, in the 19th century,

America's most important industry.

Sadly, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad does not exist today.

What happened?

Very similar to what happened to a lot of railroads

in the late 1950s, '60s and '70s,

and for a variety of reasons,

which include a late transition from steam engine to diesel.

There was overregulation from the government

and basically it's the increase in the trucking and airline industry

that really take a major bite out of freight.

TRAIN WHISTLES

Could I see some of the highlights of your collection?

-I'd love to show you around.

-Thank you.

The first railways used wooden tracks and horse-drawn carts.

When steam engines replaced horses,

passenger carriages still drew on stagecoach design.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad originally imported its locomotives

from Great Britain, until Peter Cooper designed and built

America's first steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb.

It's one of the many engines at the museum.

So, this is an extraordinarily early locomotive. When does that date to?

Yeah, this locomotive dates back to the earliest days of the B&O - 1832.

And that's, you know, contemporary with Stephenson's Rocket.

This looks nothing like it.

And that was intentional.

The problem with the B&O track was it had sharp curves

and steep grades,

and so they decided initially to use horses,

and then eventually they would come up with these shorter,

narrower and squatter engine designs,

but from that would grow the modern American steam engine.

And, just judging by sight,

it looks like the track gauge is the same as Britain - 4'8½.

Yes, it is, and that was one of the technology transfers or "thefts"

that we like to refer to, is that when they came back,

they decided pretty early on to maintain that 4'8½ gauge.

We're cousins, after all.

The rapid growth of the railroads created great wealth

for investors and prosperity for the city of Baltimore.

I'm hopping onto the single line of the Baltimore Metro System.

Originally built in the 1970s,

it was later extended to a hugely important Baltimore institution -

the Johns Hopkins Hospital, to which I'm headed.

My guidebook tells me that,

"the Johns Hopkins University was endowed with over 3 million

"by Johns Hopkins, a wealthy citizen who died in 1873,

"bequeathing an immense property to charitable purposes.

"The Johns Hopkins Hospital was endowed with over 2 million."

I'm on my way to the hospital

to witness this philanthropy on a grand scale.

During the later 19th century,

new millionaires emerged,

who made their names in retail, steel and the railroads,

and many of them used their fortunes to benefit philanthropic causes.

'I'm meeting Ronald Petersen,

President of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.'

Hello, Ron, I'm Michael.

-Hello, Michael. How are you?

-Very good to see you.

-What a spectacular place to meet.

-Yes, it is, indeed.

I've been reading about the spectacular philanthropy

of Johns Hopkins. Who was he?

Well, he was a very interesting individual -

a Quaker, merchant, banker, financier,

who was an early investor in the B&O Railroad.

In fact, he was on the board and amassed a great deal of stock.

I think he was the largest stockholder,

and he ended up giving away all of his wealth,

some 7 million, in 1873.

He endowed a university and a hospital -

an interesting combination.

Well, he had this vision that,

if it would be possible to collate a first-class university

with a first-class hospital,

then something special might be done for humankind.

By 1893, both the university and hospital had been built.

The founders hired four of the most impressive young physicians

of the time, offering them rare and tempting research opportunities.

Today, it's an internationally renowned institution,

occupying 30 buildings and employing around 41,000 people,

including 2,700 doctors.

I'm meeting Dr Edward McCarthy,

a Professor of Pathology and Orthopaedic Surgery.

So, Ed, was there a Pathology department at the beginning,

at the core of the hospital, as endowed by Johns Hopkins?

Yes, the Pathology department was the original foundation

of the hospital, founded by William Welch.

The laboratory... His laboratory was the first building on this campus,

and his mission was to get real strong science,

real strong pathology,

and medicine was built on top of that.

And what is it that you pathologists do?

You look at bones, you look at organs,

you look at tissue - what are you doing?

Well, the role of the pathologist is to, number one, make a diagnosis,

and above all, we are the teachers of other doctors,

informing them what their patient has,

what they should do about it

and what the prognosis of that particular disease is.

Would it be possible to have a look at what you're up to?

-Sure. Good.

-Thank you.

In their 123-year history, the Johns Hopkins institutions

have made some of the most far-reaching advances in medicine.

They were the first in America to develop kidney dialysis and CPR,

the first to introduce rubber gloves during surgery,

and the first to admit female students.

So, Michael, this is Dr Armin Kharrazian.

He is a pathology resident...

-How do you do?

-Nice to meet you. How are you?

..and he's looking at a thyroid gland right here.

That is a thyroid gland?

Yeah, so we have a thyroid gland. It was taken out yesterday.

I'll continue measuring the thyroid

and then after that they'll get processed in our lab

and we'll look under the microscope,

for any cancer or any other sort of disease in it.

As you look at that from the exterior,

is there anything self-evidently wrong with it?

Yeah, so, this one actually looks pretty good.

You can't really tell until we look under the microscope,

but it's probably a benign or a noncancerous process

-going on in there.

-But, nonetheless, the thyroid had to come out.

It had to come out. Yeah, exactly.

And every time you do that, you're learning more and more.

-Of course.

-Armin, thank you so much.

-Thank you.

-Great to talk to you.

Health care is today the largest employer in Baltimore,

where the Johns Hopkins institutions constitute a major industry.

To end my day, I'm visiting another Baltimore landmark.

Established in 1782,

Lexington Market is one of the oldest in the country.

I'm tempted by the local cuisine.

I've arranged a cooking lesson with Demi

at Faidley's Seafood,

a family business founded in 1886,

where they make an award-winning crab cake.

What makes crab cakes special in Baltimore?

-Oh, our crab meat.

-Yeah.

-The Maryland crab, it's the best crab in the world.

-Why?

Because of the Chesapeake Bay, the brackish water, they are very sweet.

They're called "blue", are they? Are they actually blue in any way?

Yes, they are. When they're live, they are a blue crab.

This one happens to be soft,

if it was a hard crab, he'd be biting me,

and so that's the colour,

-and then, when they're cooked, they turn orange.

-Wow.

OK, and so, you can eat them out of the shell

or this can of meat happens to be of Maryland crab meat,

but it's only the swimmer fin.

It's the biggest piece. It's the jumbo lump.

-Yes.

-It's absolutely wonderful.

It's only from the swimmer fin,

so it takes about 60 crabs to make a pound of crab meat.

Goodness. Demi, may I help you to make some crab cakes?

Absolutely. We add just a few ingredients.

We're going to start with this Maryland crab meat.

We're going to sprinkle a little bit of oat-based seasoning

over the top of the meat

and then we're going to toss in some crushed premium saltines,

and they're hand-crushed,

and I don't mean small pieces, but fairly dime-sized pieces.

'The crackers bind the crab cake together

'by absorbing the final ingredient - the family's home-made sauce.'

-Can you give me any idea what's in that sauce?

-Absolutely not.

That's a secret recipe.

So, we fold this sauce with the cracker,

and we're going to form it into a cake,

and the large cake size was actually the size of my mother's hands.

That's the perfect Maryland crab cake.

I would make one a different size, I guess, wouldn't I?

-Yeah, yours are a little bit bigger. OK.

-Let's have a go.

-So you put the crab on the bottom of your hand like that.

-Gently.

-And gently pack it together.

-And very gently pack it together.

And you can see - feel how delicate it is in your hand. Good job.

A little sloppy, but...

I'll fix it for you.

-Oh, well fixed. Look at that.

-There you go.

All fixed.

'The crab cakes are then baked in the oven for just five minutes.'

-Thank you.

-That's perfect.

-Wow.

Oh, the taste of the crab and that hint of the sauce. Lovely.

Beautiful, beautiful Maryland crab.

That's... That's perfection.

It's the second day of my stay in Baltimore.

I want to get under the skin of the city.

From the 17th until the 19th century, Maryland was a slave state,

and its proximity to the Mason-Dixon Line

attracted slaves on the run escaping to the free North.

In 1870, five years after the end of the American Civil War,

free African-Americans made up 17% of Baltimore's population.

Today, the majority of the population of Baltimore is black,

and recently, the city has been blighted by riots

and accusations against the police of racism and brutality.

I wonder, what is the connection

between the condition of the black community today

and America's dark history of the Civil War and slavery?

-D, hello. I'm Michael.

-How are you doing, Mike?

-D, nice to meet you.

-Good to see you.

-Are you going to take me for a ride?

-Yeah, let's go.

-Thank you.

'D Watkins, a one-time drug dealer,

'is now a university professor and writer.

'He's going to show me the neighbourhood of East Baltimore

'where he grew up.'

Yeah, so this is my old block, right here - Castle Street.

What was your neighbourhood like when you were a kid?

I grew up in the height of the crack era.

You almost had to develop an instinct to survive.

I'd been to close to 200 funerals by the time...

by the time I graduated high school.

How did you start out in life?

I started out on the streets.

Erm, I was a good kid, a good student, things like that,

then my older brother was murdered,

and I followed in his footsteps and went onto the streets for a while,

erm, selling drugs and things like that.

When you were selling drugs,

was that profitable and was it dangerous?

Both. When you live in a place like Baltimore,

where an 97% of the people born in poverty die in poverty,

everybody's looking for an escape.

Some people escape by using it and some people escape by selling it.

I was just fortunate enough to make some money

and afford myself some opportunities.

The problems you're telling me about,

-are they confined to the black community?

-Yes.

Johns Hopkins University just completed a study that shows

a poor black person with some college has less of a chance

of getting a job than a poor white person who's done jail time,

so the system is way lopsided.

Give me an historical context.

What is the connection between the condition of the black community

of Baltimore today, and slavery?

What's the connection?

Well, you have a 270-some-year gap in education.

You know, slaves couldn't go to school. Slaves couldn't read.

Slaves couldn't take part in the American dream.

They wasn't even able to be in control of their own bodies,

let alone be able to get an opportunity to...

to create a life for themselves in this country.

'After getting his first degree,

'D went on to get a masters in teaching

'from the Johns Hopkins School of Education.

'Today, as an author and university professor,

'he's using his experience to inspire the next generation.'

I'm a writer. I work with young people. I train young journalists,

and my focus is literacy, teaching people how to read

and helping people become thinkers.

I know another guy who does financial literacy.

He teaches people what to do with their money.

I know another guy who is into fitness.

He has young kids running up and down the block, you know,

making sure they're not, you know, injecting themselves with poison,

and that they're healthy,

so all of these different moving parts

are needed to make real change,

and figuring out ways where we can...we can...

we can build with each other, support each other,

share ideas and things like that, is what's needed.

BELL RINGS Baltimore's Light Rail network

runs along the city's streets

towards my final destination, Fort McHenry.

BELL RINGS

Completed in 1803, the star-shaped fortification

occupies a headland at the mouth of the inner harbour.

Throughout the 19th century, it was the cornerstone of Baltimore's

defences, and the site of a very significant battle.

My guidebook tells me that

"the entrance to Baltimore Harbour is defended by Fort McHenry,

"which was unsuccessfully bombarded by the British fleet

"in the War of 1812."

In the short time that I've been in America,

I've discovered that Americans have a much clearer memory of this war

than the British do,

and that could be because,

just before the British forces reached this point,

they'd burnt down the White House.

'I'm meeting Fort McHenry Park Ranger Scott Sheads.'

Scott, why were the United States and United Kingdom

at war with each other between 1812 and 1814?

Well, some 37 years after the American Revolution,

which gave us our independence from Great Britain,

we had the Napoleonic Wars.

England and France caught in a global struggle, worldwide,

and the young America is caught up in this,

and so, both England and France have put economic blockades against us,

and so, in 1812, we declare war on Great Britain.

We certainly don't have the means or the money to

cross the Atlantic Ocean and invade England,

but we can invade Canada.

That's just up the road here, and so, if we can invade Canada,

we might be able to have England lessen the sanctions against us.

But it was a disaster.

The American forces were no match for the powerful

and experienced British Army,

who went on to mount further attacks.

So, in August of 1814,

50 British warships, 5,000 British troops,

march on Washington DC and defeat the American army,

twice their size, enter the nation's capital and burn the White House,

the President's house, the Capitol and other government buildings.

The glow of Washington is so powerful

that citizens here in Baltimore, 40 miles away,

could see the glow of Washington burning on the horizon,

and they knew Baltimore would be next.

And it was.

Not quite three weeks later,

British warships moved up the Patapsco River towards Fort McHenry.

The Battle for Baltimore raged for over 25 hours,

but a 1,000-strong force of citizens and soldiers held firm.

So, on that morning, September 14, at dawn's early light,

four young fifer and drummer boys come out,

and with them, they bring a large American flag,

and as the flag is hoisted,

those young fifer and drummer boys

play the national song of America - the Yankee Doodle.

MUSIC: Yankee Doodle

And the tune is heard by a young American on a ship in the harbour -

Francis Scott Key.

And from that vantage point,

he sees the flag going up for the first time,

and knows that the Americans have achieved a victory,

and so, in those few moments,

he is inspired to write four stanzas that will become known as

the national anthem of the United States.

-HE RECITES:

-"Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

"what so proudly we held at the twilight's last gleaming?

"And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

"gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

"Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

"over the land of the free

-"and the home of the brave?"

-MUSIC: Star-Spangled Banner

Scott, I've so often heard the words of the Star-Spangled Banner.

I found them obscure and difficult to understand, but, of course,

coming here, now, it's all unravelled.

It's all absolutely clear.

Heroism at Fort McHenry inspired the Star-Spangled Banner anthem,

and when you hear an American crowd sing it,

their fervour and patriotism are impressive.

As the United States expanded,

the railways knitted together this vast country,

and, after the Civil War,

they helped to unify it across the Mason-Dixon Line,

but here in Baltimore,

you sense that there are two nations divided by a boundary of privilege.

One is predominantly white, the other predominantly black,

and no amount of singing about victory over the British

two centuries ago is going to bring them together.

The United States remains a work in progress.

'Next time, I'll pick up my spending money.'

This bundle is 80,000.

I've never held anything like that much money in my life.

'I'll visit the newsroom that revealed the Watergate scandal...'

It went from this break-in all the way to the White House.

'..before discovering how Abraham Lincoln met his end.'

And, from just a few inches,

fired a shot that hit him right behind the left ear.