BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD.

PRESIDENT'S OFFICE.
Baltimore 9th Feb'ry, 1867.
Hon. OLIVER Miller

Speaker of the Home of Delegates.

SIR : I have reached a copy of an order passed by the House
of Delegates on the 31st January, 1867, as follows:

"Ordered, That the President of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company, be requested to inform this House, what
amount of work has been performed under his direction to-
wards the construction of the Metropolitan Railroad, from the
Point of Bocks to the District of Columbia, how far the same
has progressed, and how long it will require, at the present'
rate of progress, to complete said road; further, that he he
requested to state, what, in his opinion, will be a fair estimate
of the proceeds from travel, tonnage and freight expenses,
which upon the completion of the road will be diverted from
the main stem of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and from
the Washington branch of said road."

In reply to the first inquiry made in the order, I hare the
honor to state that the surveys which necessarily preceded the
location and construction of the Metropolitan Railroad were
not completed until December, 1866, although commenced in
1865. They were delayed first by the winter and afterwards
by the time occupied by citizens of Washington in procuring
legislation to authorize a route and terminus which they pre-
ferred and which it was thought the Company might properly
adopt, if the necessary privileges were granted. Notwith-
standing the uncertainty which thus retarded the final loca-
tion of the whole line, it was determined to commence the
work of construction in the spring of 1866, at the crossing of
Parrs ridge, because that point was common to all the routes
in contemplation, and there the heaviest work was to be dons;
accordingly that part of the work was commenced and prose-
cuted; so that on the first day of January, 1867, there had
been removed 17,118 cubic yards of earth, and 21,126 cable
yards of rook. But little other work has yet been done in
construction. The surveys being now complete and the neces-