The Lexington and Ohio Railroad was the first railroad in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. Its charter proposed the establishment of a link between Lexington in the center of the Bluegrass Region to the river port of Louisville at the Falls of the Ohio by way of Frankfort, the state capital. The line was never completed and the Panic of 1837 led to its complete collapse. The Commonwealth seized the railroad in payment of its debts in 1840.