One more fact about the bridge picutre from yesterday is that the bridge carries the Appalacian trail over the Potomac. Most people know that the trail goes through Maryland because they see the sign on the bridge above interstate 70 where the trail crosses the highway.
From the tunnel through the Maryland Heights cliffs, this bridge and it’s sister to the north pass into harper’s ferry. You can actually walk along this bridge next to the tracks as it crosses the Potomac.
How can I get away with this picture? Am I in West Virginia?
I can get away with this becacuse,from shore to shore, the Potomoac (excluding the part of the river flowing through DC) is considered part of the state of Maryland. With it, this bridge is in Maryland.
Of course, if there’s a train going through a Maryland town, I’m probably going to be interested in it. Despite the tunnel’s name, it is located on the Maryland side of the river. This tunnel goes through the harsh cliffs of Maryland heights allowing the trains from Baltimore and DC to pass through it just before they pass over the Potomac and into Harper’s ferry. If you remember past posts about the C&O canal, you might be interested in knowing that this picture was taken from the canal, as it meanders along the shore of the Potomac. With the Canal having right of way along the entire shoreline, there was no room for trains to pass. So the railroad was forced to build this tunnel.
Close to the faded sign from yesterday, these two decided to spend Saturday afternoon on the cliffs above Maryland Heights. On top of these hills, the remnants of multiple civil war gun placements and forts survive from the years that the Union held Maryland heights and its commanding view of Harpers Ferry and the Potomac.
This cliff faces the Potomac in Maryland Heights, an area just across the river from Harpers Ferry , West Virginia. Someone in the early 20th centry thought that it would be a great idea to paint an ad on the face of the cliff, forcing knowlege of his product on everyone in Harpers Ferry who dared to look across the river.
I think this is a hilarious remnant of a time when complicated names for products that did little were perfectly matched with large ads that defaced scenic landscapes. All that is missing is the song and dance of a less than repuatable door to door salesman.
Part of my job involves looking over the checks that my employer writes. A short while ago I came across a mysterious vendor. When I researched what this vendor did, I was shocked and amused.
It turns out that there is a company out there that will chase geese off of your property. When I found out about it, I thought it was very odd. However, the very next day, I was driving to work and was stopped at an off-ramp by a family of geese crossing in front of my car. Since then, my eyes have been opened.
There are more geese than you would ever believe hanging out all over central Maryland. These geese represent a threat to many of the finely manicured entrances to the generically designed office parks of the area. As many of them are chased off of private property, they find homes in public spaces. Centennial park is definitely home to many of Maryland’s displaced geese. Here we see them enjoying a fall day with one of the human visitors to their home.
As I promised back in July, when I first went there, I have returned to Centennial park to witness the leaves change color. Sadly I didn’t get to take too many pictures of the fall leaves this year. I took a trip in the middle of the fall, and I returned to four days of steady rain. This past weekend I had earmarked time on both Saturday and Sunday for trips along the Potomac to take pictures of the leaves, but the cloudy skies and the rain stopped me. So today’s picture is MDP’s official fall souvenir.
Near yesterday’s gas station is Merriweather Post Pavillion. It is an open air music venue with seating close to the stage under cover and open field areas behind. For people from central and western and possibly all of Maryland, this venue is the closest one for them to see many big name acts. However, it’s just a little bit tinier than its counterpart in Virginia, and as thus Marylanders are too often forced to see musical acts on the other side of the Potomac.
I think it’s one of the nicer places to see a show, especially becasue the seating area is fairly large. However, there’s another catch. It’s in Columbia, so there are restrictions on the time of night that you can still play loud music. In fact I once went to see a band, which was the last of three playing that day. After sitting through two long sets of other bands, the main act only had 50 minutes on the stage before the show had to end.
We are looking at the pavilion from the very back of the venue. I’ve never been too sure where these sculptures came from.
A little history for readers from out of state: The town of Columbia is a planned community, which takes up a good chunk of Howard County, MD, located in the central area of the state. It was planned to keep residences and buisinesses in clusters, or villages.
Much of the planning was geared towards the point of view of the residents, in that they shouldn’t have to deal with the commercial parts of town in their drives through the neighborhood. When they are home, they should feel like they are in a town-like setting. The asthetic of Columbia calls for most of its retail areas to be grouped together and to be effectively not seen from the road and certainly not seen from residential areas. (Though not relevant to my story, you should know that much of the planning included adding pleasing asthetic features to the landscape. There were lakes that were built and many new varieties off trees were introduced to a landscape that was formerly agricultural.)
What has always frustrated visitors from out of town is the difficulty in finding a gas station. Gas stations, retail enterprises with the odor of industry, were the ultimate things to hide in Columbia. Nobody wants to see them, right?
For residents it’s generally not too much of a problem becasue they know where the gas stations are, but for outsiders it is an annoyance and it is one of the first things that many outsiders will talk about if asked about Columbia.
As an example, I have always mentioned the one pictured today. It’s located in a very busy part of town, next to the mall and right on the main road. However, it’s about 10 feet below grade, it’s not accessible without turning onto a side street, and it has an odd skylight covering so that if you could see the area from the road you are still prevented from seeing the pumps and thus figuring out that it’s a gas station.
Desipite all of those things, and its higher than average prices, this station hung on for decades. It couldn’t have done that anywhere else.
This millstone is stiuated stangely in a lawn in the town of Brookeville (mentioned before as the Capital for the day that president Madison fled Washington) . According to a nearby sign, it weighs almost two tons and belonged to “Newlins Mill.” After the stone was taken out of service in the 1880′s, it was actually moved to a park in Olney, which is a few miles away. There’s no mention of why it was moved, but that’s where it ended up. In 2001 someone discovered it there in Olney and they actualy began what seems to be an extremely thorough examination of its origins. After finding out that the stone was from a mill in Brookeville, they then brought the two ton stone back as close as they could to where the original mill was.