History Hike Information - Baltimore, MD 2009

Baltimore Transportation History Walk
June 2008
Speakers Notes

From lobby entrance of the Marriott, turn right, walk to the water, turn right, and walk to the first bridge.

We are next to the Jones Falls, a stream that has supplied water and power and was considered for transportation uses since 1800’s. In 1915 the Fallsway was built for $2m and in 1962 the $55 million JFX (Interstate 83) was built further hiding the waterway

Eastern Avenue Pumping Station - completed in 1912, was the crown jewel of Baltimore City’s ambitious plan to provide its citizens with a modern-day sanitary sewage system. Gravity fed from downtown Baltimore it originally had coal filed steam powered pumps to pump the sewage 7 miles east to the Back River treatment plant.

The pumping station is also home of the Public Works Museum and the Streetscape exhibit of what lies underneath a typical intersection.

Cross bridge on your left and continue straight to the next bridge.

The Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse - the oldest surviving screw-pile lighthouse built as an aid to navigation on the Chesapeake Bay. It was built at the mouth of the Patapsco River in 1855 and marked the shoal known as "Seven Foot Knoll" for 133 years. Its beacon was first lit in January of 1856. The innovative screw-pile lighthouse design, which made its first appearance in the United States in 1850, eliminated the need for underwater masonry foundations to support a lighthouse. Screw-pile lighthouses were suspended above the water by a system of cast-iron pilings with corkscrew-like bases, which could be screwed into the soft mud of the sea floor. The Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse was the second screw-pile lighthouse built on the Chesapeake Bay and was constructed on nine cast-iron screw piles supporting a gallery deck some nine feet above mean high water.

Across the Inner Harbor is Federal Hill – named for Baltimore’s celebration of the state’s ratification of the constitution in May 1788. It was mined for sand ad clay and at one time was proposed to be used as fill for the inner harbor however engineering at the time prevented such a large movement of fill.

Pause on the bridge facing the Power Plant and the Taney.

Power Plant – constructed in 1895 by the United Railways and Electric Company on Dugan Wharf. This plant powered Baltimore’s street car system as well as power to the city. It received coal from barges and the railroad on Pratt St. It was obsolete before streetcars stopped running in 1963.

USCGC TANEY - constructed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1935-36 as one of seven Treasury/Secretary Class cutters produced for the US Coast Guard before World War II. Home ported in Honolulu, Hawaii beginning in 1937, TANEY was attached to Destroyer Division 80 in the summer of 1941 and was in action against Japanese planes during the Pearl Harbor Attack. By virtue of her 50 year career, she is the last surviving warship afloat today from the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Hawaii. Known as "The Queen of the Pacific," TANEY was home ported in Alameda, CA, from 1946 to 1972 carrying out ocean weather patrol, law enforcement and search and rescue duties. During 1969-70, the cutter was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron III off South Vietnam. Decommissioned on 7 December 1986.

Continue past the Power Plant and across the next bridge to the Aquarium entrance, and stop near the lightship.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore was opened in 1981, expanded in 1990, and again in 2005. It is located on the former Merchant and Miners Company Pier.

When completed in 1930, Lightship 116 "Chesapeake “was among the most modern and capable ships in use with the US Lighthouse Service. Lightship 116 was built in South Carolina at the Charleston Machine and Dry-dock Company at a cost of $274,424. Electricity for the ship's propulsion motor, lighting and machinery was supplied by four 75-kilowatt diesel engine/generator units located in the engine room. Her signaling apparatus consisted of a 13,000 candlepower electric beacon lamp atop each mast (later consolidated on the aft mast), an electric foghorn (later replaced with a compressed-air diaphone), radio beacon, and fog bell mounted on the main deck. The ship was equipped with two 5,000-pound mushroom anchors (one main and a spare) designed to hold her on station in all but the roughest weather. The US Lighthouse Service first assigned Lightship 116 to the Fenwick Island Shoal (DE) Station from 1930-33; after that assignment she marked the entrance to Chesapeake Bay until the beginning of World War II . Despite some equipment upgrades, such as radar, technology began to overtake Lightship 116 by the 1960s. In 1965, the Chesapeake Lightship Station was replaced by a Coast Guard offshore light tower built on stout pilings strong enough to withstand the roughest seas. Manned by a crew of just four, the light tower was cheaper to run and had a more powerful beacon visible for a distance of 17 miles. After being relieved at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Lightship 116's final duty station was marking the approaches to Delaware Bay until replaced there by a large automated light buoy in 1970.

USS TORSK was commissioned on 16 December 1944 and built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. She was one of only ten Tench Class fleet type submarines to see service in World War II. Deployed to the Pacific, TORSK operated from Pearl Harbor and made two war patrols off Japan during the spring and summer of 1945. After World War II, TORSK alternated between duties as a training boat at the Navy’s Submarine School in New London, Connecticut, and active deployments in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Decommissioned on 4 March 1968, with an impressive record of over 10,600 career dives.

Walk to the base of the pedestrian bridge.

This is the sight of first major bloodletting of the Civil War, commemorated in Maryland’s state song as “the patriotic gore that flecked the streets of Baltimore.” Baltimore had split loyalties at the beginning of the war, though four years of military occupation following the riots and growth of defense industries to supply the Union armies resulted in an influx of northerners and immigrants that changed the city’s character by the end of the war. The riot occurred on April 19, 1861, six days after the fall of Fort Sumter, when Union troops changing trains on the way to Washington clashed with residents who supported the Confederacy. Trains from Philadelphia terminated at President Street Station near the Marriott hotel. Trains from Washington terminated at Camden Station a few blocks to the west of the Inner Harbor. Coaches were hauled by horse between the stations on tracks along Pratt Street. Switch engines hauled freight cars down the middle of the street to Inner Harbor businesses into the 1970s.

The World Trade Center was completed in 1977. Designed by the internationally renowned architectural firm of I.M. Pei, it is the tallest pentagonal building in the world. The Top of the World observation deck, located on the 27th floor, offers a 360 degree view of Baltimore from 387 feet above the harbor.

Walk past the Word Trade Center to the Pratt Street Pavilion of Harborplace, go up to second floor, cross the pedestrian bridge, and enter the hallway on your left.

This hallway highlights the history and archeology of the Inner Harbor. Note how far the old waterline extends all the way to Water Street.

The masts rising above Harborplace are on the USS Constellation, the last tall ship built by the US Navy before steam replaced wind as the standard means of power. It was launched in 1854, just before the Civil War, and was named after the first Constellation, a 1797 frigate built in Baltimore. For a long time it was thought to be the original fleet from the first US navy, only after extensive research was it realized that the original one was scrapped in 1853 to be secretly replace by this one in 1854 in an effort to avoid Congress’ prohibition on the construction of new Navy ships.

Go down the escalators to the front door of the shopping area, turn right on Calvert Street, walk one block to Lombard Street.

Several blocks to your left is the Bromo Seltzer Tower – built in 1911 by Capt. Emerson of the Emerson Drug Company and inventor of Bromo Seltzer. It is 306 feet high and was topped with a 51 foot replica of a Bromo seltzer bottle that had over 500 lights and could be seen from 20 miles away. The clock face spells out Bromo Seltzer instead of numerals.

Continue one block to Water Street.

As we mentioned earlier, Water Street was the farthest inland extent of the harbor’s earliest piers.

Continue one block to Redwood Street.

At the end of Redwood Street to your left is the 1960's-era Charles Center redevelopment project, where Baltimore’s renaissance began, and the Hansa House, a half-timbered structure built in 1912 for the North German Lloyd Steamship Company. Redwood Street was German Street until World War I, when the street was renamed for the first Marylander killed in that conflict.

Across the street is one of the few survivors of the great fire of 1904, the Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Building, built in 1886.

Turn right on Redwood Street, walk one block, turn left, walk one block to Baltimore Street.

To your right is Baltimore’s infamous Block, where maritime industry participants and others enjoyed lusty performances by artists such as Blaze Starr.

Down Baltimore Street to the left is the Alex Brown building. Founded in 1808, the firm Alex. Brown & Sons is the first and oldest continually operating investment bank in the United States. 1808 was a good year, when Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin completed the first national transportation policy study by the US government.

Continue one block to Fayette Street.

Further up this street is the Peale Museum. The first building in the Western Hemisphere specifically designed to house a Museum, Peale’s Baltimore Museum opened its doors in 1814. The building functioned as City Hall from 1830 to 1876 and Colored School No. 1 from 1878 to 1889. Baltimore citizens saved the building from demolition in 1930 and the building functioned once again as a museum until 1997. It was the first building in the US to be lighted with natural gas in 1816.

Turn right on Fayette Street and walk toward the Shot Tower.

Across the street is City Hall. begun in 1867, its architecture reflected the latest style from Europe—Second Empire French made popular by Napoleon III. Built almost entirely by local craftsmen using materials from the area, it was completed eight years later in 1875. The building’s dome was designed by Baltimore engineer Wendell Bollman, who also designed the dome for the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Facing City Hall across the plaza is the War Memorial. Erected in 1921 in honor of the 1,752 Maryland citizens who died during World War I, the memorial building carries each of their names etched in marble on the walls inside. In 1977 the building was rededicated to honor all Marylanders who have fallen in our nations’ battles. Today the building is used by veterans groups, patriotic societies, and for other civic gatherings.

Across the plaza is Zion Lutheran Church, the spiritual home of German speaking Lutherans since 1755. The church was once known as the “German Cathedral of Baltimore.” It still holds German language worship services on a regular basis and remains a gathering place for the city’s German community. The church sanctuary, erected in 1807, is one of the oldest structures in the downtown area.

Continue on Fayette Street across President Street to the Shot Tower.

We are at the end of Interstate 83, the Jones Falls Expressway or JFX, which was to continue along President Street through the site of the Marriott, where it would meet Interstate 95 at a bridge across the mouth of the Inner Harbor and continue through Fells Point. The downtown business community nixed the idea of the bridge, and the alignment through Fells Point was stopped in one of the great battles of the Freeway Revolt. One of the community activists was a social worker who subsequently went into politics: Senator Barbara Mikulski.

In front of us is the Phoenix Shot Tower. The last remaining of three shot making towers that pierced the city’s skyline in the 19th century, this shot tower stands 234 feet tall. Built in 1828 using 1.1 million bricks, the tower produced as many as half a million 25 pound bags of gun shot each year and was one of the largest suppliers in the nation. Molten lead was raised to the top and poured through a sieve and dropped into water. The tower remained the tallest structure in the United States until 1846, when Trinity Church, New York was erected. It was the tallest free-standing masonry structure in the world until 1864, when it was passed by the Washington Monument in the District of Columbia. In 1921 the tower was purchased for $14,500 by the Union Oil Company, which planned to tear it down and put a gas station in its place. There were strong objections by the community, and by 1928 enough money was raised to purchase the tower and present it to the City of Baltimore. The tower was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972 and converted to a museum in 1977.

Across the street is St. Vincent de Paul - Established in 1841, St. Vincent’s is the oldest Catholic church in continuous use in America’s oldest Archdiocese. The Baltimore Basilica is older - built between 1806 and 1821.

Not far from here is the Friends Meeting House. Constructed in 1781, this is the oldest religious building in Baltimore and one of the few from the 18th century still standing. This meeting was home to famous Quakers, including: Johns Hopkins, founder of the country’s first research university and hospital, Phillip E. Thomas, first president of the B&O Railroad, and Elisha Tyson, founder of the first abolitionist society in the South.

Turn right and follow the cobblestone streets paralleling President Street.

The area between the towns of Baltimore and Fells was Jones Town. Founded in 1732, Jones Town consolidated with Baltimore in 1745. At first the home to wealthy residents, in the 19th century it became the port-of-entry neighborhood for immigrants seeking opportunity—especially East European Jews, who established its largest and most enduring ethnic community. With urban renewal in the mid-20th century, Jonestown’s tenements gave way to massive public high-rises. These were demolished by century’s end, to be replaced by new, mixed-income housing modeled on the traditional Baltimore rowhouse.

Across the street to the right is the Fish Market, which was built after the 1904 fire and replaced in 1980 by a modern facility in Jessup to be closer to customers in Washington and to air cargo facilities at BWI. Most fish came from the Chesapeake in the early days, so proximity to the port was valued. Now fish come from all over the world, so proximity to the airport is prized.

At Lombard Street, turn left.

We are next to the Carroll House. Named for its most distinguished resident, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Mansion is the best preserved example of a grand 18th century merchant’s townhouse still standing in Baltimore. It was built in 1811. Charles Carroll, once the wealthiest man in America, helped lay the cornerstone of the B&O Railroad.

Next to the Carroll House is the 1840 House, named for the period it represents, and the Flag House, home of Mary Young Pickersgill, who sewed the 30 foot by 42 foot flag-the Star-Spangled Banner-that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the poem, “The Defense of Ft. McHenry,” also known as our National Anthem.

Walk one block to Albemarle Street, turn right, and walk across Pratt Street.

This is the Little Italy neighborhood. Note the many eating opportunities as we near the Marriott.

Continue to Fleet Street.

On your right is President Street Station - the oldest surviving big city train station in the country. Built in 1849, it was the original terminus for the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, and later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. After passenger service ended in 1911, it was a freight station and then a warehouse until 1970. Tracks immediately east of the station were still used for another decade. Construction of the Marriott revealed early 19th century iron-topped wooden rails beneath the street.

Continue to the traffic circle at Aliceanna Street.

In front of us is the National Katyn Memorial, a soaring golden statue and fountain that commemorates the 1940 massacre of Polish soldiers by Soviet troops during World War II.

When Frank Francois became executive director of AASHTO in 1980, the Chief Engineer of the Maryland State Highway Administration announced that the last traffic circle in the state was being removed. When Frank retired from AASHTO in 1999, the State Highway Administration had installed the first in a new generation of traffic circles. And history came full circle...

Turn right on Aliceanna Street and return to the Marriott.

And this concludes our history walk.