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The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was a former U.S. transportation company with railroad lines in eight states, Washington, D.C., and Ontario, Canada. Founded as the Louisa RR Company in Virginia in 1836, the railroad changed its name to the Virginia Central Company in 1850. It served the Confederate armies during the Civil War and was severely damaged by Union raids. In 1869 financier Collis P. Huntington purchased the line; and it became the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1878. In the 1960s the C&O received nearly all of its net income from carrying freight and was the nation's largest carrier of bituminous coal. The C&O merged with the Baltimore & Ohio RR in 1965 and in 1980 the combined company became part of the newly formed CSX Corporation. Today, CSX, after acquiring 42% of Conrail in 1999, is one of four major railroad systems left in the country, and still an innovative leader, true to its roots in Robert Young at "For Progress," the Van Sweringens and their quest for efficiency and standardization, to George Stevens and his dedication to operation efficiency and safety awareness, back to Collis P. Huntington and his dreams of a transportation empire, and even back to those old, long forgotten Virginians who started it all to carry their farm produce to market in 1830.
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