He pursued the vocation of civil engineer, and in that capacity had charge of the construction of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad in Vinton County, Ohio.
The trail is built on the grade of a railroad originally built as part of the part of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, which ran between its namesake cities.
Laird's design was complex and did not find favor, although he incorporated it on some locomotives he built or rebuilt, particularly on the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad and later the Pennsylvania Railroad.
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It was laid out by John J. Cozad in 1871 (father of Robert Henri), who hoped to prosper from the site's location on the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad (later the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad).