The railroad did not reach Ohio (the river) until 1852, 24 years after the project started. Yet Ohio was from the beginning the destination the railroad was seeking to link with Baltimore, at the time a railroad center. By crossing the Appalachian Mountains, a technical challenge, it would link the new and booming territories of what at the time was the West—Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and so on—with the east coast rail and boat network, from Maryland northward. (There was no rail link between Maryland and Virginia until the B&O opened the Harpers Ferry bridge in 1839.)