A fierce four-year struggle erupted over the narrow strip of land between the river and the mountains at Point of Rocks, where both the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal believed the ideal westward route belonged to them. The dispute divided citizens of Point of Rocks and other river towns as merchants and townspeople chose between the canal and the new and unproven railroad, joined boycotts, refused to sell land, or demanded exorbitant prices for their property. Although the courts ruled in the canal's favor in 1832, legal fees nearly bankrupted the canal company, and it ultimately accepted a compromise that let the railroad build beside the canal between Harper's Ferry and Point of Rocks in exchange for money to continue canal construction.