Maryland Daily Photo

Here’s a shot of the Key Bridge as see from Fort Armistead.  This isn’t really a story about the bridge though.  It’s a story about the fort.  The fort’s land which sits on the western edge of the key bridge at just about the southern-most tip of Baltimore is experiencing a bit of a renaissance.  That’s not to say that I think you should all flock there.   I’m just saying that fort grounds are being used as a park again, rather than just a secluded area for all sorts of illegal activities, which is what it is often noted for.    There’s a free boat ramp which seems to be very popular, and my fishing areas.  Plus its right there next to the bridge.  Apparently there’s even a lake on the property.  I certainly didn’t know that.

Here is the eagle from above the headlight of the American Freedom train in the B&O museum.  

Sory for the short post, work’s been really tough this week. 

This is an obelisk commerating the building of the Thomas Viaduct.  The viaduct has successfully allowed railroads to cross the potapsco for the last 185 years.  It’s quite a formidable structure and has outlasted many floods, hurricanes, and changes in ownership.  It also, REMARKABLY, has done so with little to no graffiti.   It’s tough to get to the obelisk as there are only two ways.  Parking in a residential neighborhood and walking through an abandoned field, or from below, which is the path I took. 

The site around the obelisk today is where an apparently very “grand” hotel used to stand.  The area directly south west is generally considered Elkridge, (or Elks Ridge back in the day) but the area in the immdiate vicinity of the obelisk used to be the town of Relay.  It was named as such becasue of the relay station for the railroad.  Rely was very important as a point in the middle of the then booming Washington  line of the B&O.   The obelisk’s presentation, and the completion of the viaduct were presided over by the president of the B&O, Phillip E. Thomas, from whom the viaduct gets its name. 

The line became so important that the vicinity of the Viaduct, including the entire town of Relay was occupied by Union soldiers for four years around the Civil war, to protect this bridge, which was one of few rail links to Washington from the north. 

 Similarly, being on such a key travel line, and being a place where many passengers would stop in the middle of their trip, it seemed a good spot for a nice hotel ovelooking the river.  (the banks of which are where this picture was taken)  The hotel is gone, but it used to sit right next to the Obelisk.  

Believe it or not, I knew about the viaduct before I knew about Patapsco Valley State Park, where I took this and this.   It was in search of this piece of railroad history, that I came aross the park. 

So there’s a TV show on ABC called Hopkins.  While I haven’t watched the tv show, but I think it airs on Thursday nights.   For those who have watched it, and for those following the theme of the last two posts, here’s the famous dome at the medical center. 

(coincidentally, this is just up the same street as another spot made famous by a tv show visible here —-> city-pier.JPG)

It is, by the way, like you are in a totally different city when you are near the hospital.  It’s hard to qualify, but there is a whole different attitude, half collegiate, half people mad that you are in their way. 

Here’s a sign across from the metro station (seen on yesterday’s post), just in front of the hospital.  This shot was taken on Brodway, for those who were wondering.

I finally got a chance to ride the Baltimore metro.  They will not permit you to take photos of its stations or trains, so this is all I have to offer right now.  I seriously angered one of the station attendants when I had my camera out in a station.  

Aside from that I had a good experience on the Metro.  The best part about it was how fast the trains actually went.  In comparison to every other form of public transportation in the state (I’m talking to you Light Rail and MARC) this is remarkable. Trains come around every 12 minutes.  Both of mine were on time.   There are relatively few stops so you actually get to your destination in good time.   I wish I could take it to more places. 

The stations were all very clean, and some of them were sort of interesting.  The Hopkins Hospital station has a pretty cool mural about science.   That, is also the station where this picture was taken.   

Ok last horse picture.   Just thought I’d post something less somber after yesterday’s picture. 

Actually I had plans for this day’s post, but when I took a trip to go photograph a pretty cool historic site I had heard about in Rockville, I got there and realized that I had left the memory card out of my camera.  As such, we have horses again today.  I promise there will be less horse pictures in the future.   (that said, I think this is the best of the horse pictures)

Inside Brookside Gardens (discussed last week) is a memorial to the victims of the “DC Sniper” attacks from 2003.  

It is one of the more tastefully designed, if not the most tatstefully designed, modern day memorials that I’ve come across.  The names of the victims are enscribed on a stone out of frame to the right, and below this stone is a hidden area of similar design that borders right on the edge of the pond seen here in the background.   

That black strip in the middle of the picture is not some sort of volcanic rock, as some of us had hypothesized it to be.  It is asphault.   It turns out that, as a real suprise, some developer in the 50’s tried to develop Assateague and paved a road all the way down to the VA border.  Soon thereafter, a storm came and washed much of the road away.  It was then decided that the island might not be the best place for a development and from all of that, the national seashore was started.   

This guy doesn’t have the full fledged “jim from the office” haircut, like Tony from yesterday, that makes the Assategue horses so famous.  However, we’ll still post him becasue he was comically unafraid of anyone in the parking lot.  However, that’s not to say he shouldn’t be afraid.  Some guy nearby had tried to feed him a watermelon, and when this pony refused, the guy threw the watermelon (slice) at him.  Seems like a bit of a harsh response to an animal that decided not to take human food.  

Anyway, here’s some more trivia:  There are around 6 different types of snakes on the island.   Sometimes when you see a snake, you think its a good idea to take a picture of it.  When I saw a snake, I thought it was a good idea to run away like a 5 year old.  So you get a picture of this horse instead of a picture of a snake.  Sorry.