Both canal and railway went on building, but as they needed nearly the same route in some places, they did not get on well together. The canal was located in the state of Maryland, along the north bank of the Potomac. This was done in some measure because a large part of the water which would be needed for the canal came down from the uplands on the north side. It took twenty-three years to dig the trench as far as Cumberland, so that it was 1851 before boats could run between Cumberland and tide water. The original plan of carrying the canal beyond Cumberland and across the mountains was never carried out. Just below the point where Wills creek enters the Potomac there is a dam, and from the pond so made the water is taken into the upper end of the canal. Much traffic has passed up and down the canal, but, on the whole, it has not paid for the cost of building and repairing. Sometimes it has been out of use, and a few months ago the state of Maryland sold it for a small sum to the Wabash Railway Company. The _North American Review_ has been published for a long time. At least seventy-five years ago this magazine printed two articles on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. By reading them we can see how the intelligent people of that time felt about building it. In favor of the proposed railroad they said, first, that it would not be closed by ice for several months each year, as the Erie canal and the rivers were. Secondly, they reminded the public that Baltimore is two hundred miles nearer the Ohio navigation than New York is, and one hundred miles nearer than Philadelphia. Thirdly, they argued that New Orleans was a long way off, and its climate hot and unhealthful. Provisions sent by that route would be likely to spoil, and the traders taking the goods down the river might fall sick. Further, the rivers in a dry summer would be too low for navigation. [Illustration: FIG. 40. HIGHEST POINT ON BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD, AT SAND PATCH, PENNSYLVANIA] Nor did Baltimore people think that the Erie canal could get much trade except from regions close to lake Erie, and they had noticed that lands not far from the canal still sent a good deal of produce down the Susquehanna river to Baltimore. There was no port south of them that was so good as theirs; in short, they showed a very proper pride in their own home and a conviction that Baltimore was as good as any other American city, if not, perhaps, a little better.