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.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Bob Kelso // Jul 21, 2008 at 10:17 AM
pAtapsco.
2 First Stone « Maryland Daily Photo // Jul 2, 2010 at 12:23 AM
[...] of America’s first railroad, there’s an opportunity to do so this coming weekend. The Thomas Viaduct, though completed some time after this stone was laid, is the oldest railroad bridge still in [...]
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