The CSX Susquehanna River Bridge is a railroad bridge that carries CSX's Philadelphia Subdivision across the Susquehanna River between Havre de Grace and Perryville, Maryland, via Garrett Island. It was built in 1907-10 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on the same alignment as an 1886 B&O bridge. Like its predecessor, it was the longest continuous bridge on the B&O system. History 1866-1884: PW&B Bridge The 1866 completion of the nearby Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore (PW&B) railroad bridge allowed trains between Baltimore and Philadelphia to cross the Susquehanna without the aid of a ferryboat for the first time. The B&O used trackage rights on the PW&B to operate trains to Philadelphia and Jersey City starting at about this time. In this way, the B&O was able to expand its service territory with minimal capital expenditure. In 1869, the B&O began advertising this route as the "New York and Washington Air Line Railway." Although the PW&B was an independent company at the time, the use of key sections of track in Philadelphia and New Jersey depended upon the cooperation of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). When the B&O's president John W. Garrett was outbid by the PRR for control of the PW&B in early 1881, Garrett realized that B&O's Philadelphia and New York connections were in jeopardy. B&O began planning immediately for its own line between Baltimore and Philadelphia, where a connection to the friendly Reading Railroad would provide access to the New York area. B&O passenger trains continued crossing the river on the PW&B until the trackage rights agreement expired on October 12, 1884. 1884-1907: First B&O Bridge B&O's new line, the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad, was built to higher engineering standards than typical on its system, despite the company's shaky finances. At the Susquehanna, the B&O resolved to create a bridge that was superior to the PW&B bridge it formerly used. As Garrett wrote in an 1884 report: It...will be one of the largest and most remarkable structures of its class in the world. It is the determination of the company that it shall be of the most substantial, safe and durable character. It will be in length, above low mean tide, and will rest on eleven granite piers, having their foundations on the bed-rock of the river... The foundations for six of the piers have been difficult, reaching, as they do, a depth of below low water, and