Staying at a century-old hotel in Baltimore

On my first visit to Baltimore, I stayed at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Baltimore, which is close to the famous landmark, Baltimore Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is home to many tourist attractions, including an aquarium and a maritime museum. When I arrived at the hotel lobby, I saw a row of information boards and learned that the building itself is a historic site, once the headquarters of the most influential railroad company in the United States, the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad. The B&O Railroad holds an important place in the history of American railroads, as it was not only the first commercial railroad in the country (its first section opened in 1830), but also the first to successfully invent a steam locomotive in the United States, and the first to be used to transport mail. About a 10-minute drive from the hotel is the B&O Railroad Museum, where the first railroad in the United States was built. The museum is not only the oldest railroad manufacturing facility in the United States, but also houses the largest collection of 19th-century locomotives in the country, attracting railroad enthusiasts from around the world.