Sentence:  Board Chairman Howard Simpson of the Baltimore + Ohio Railroad Co. , testified the B + O <WSD>was</WSD> in its worst financial condition since the depression years and badly needed the economic lift it would get from consolidation with the Chesapeake + Ohio Railroad . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)