Maryland Daily PhotoEvery Week Day a New Picture from MD

Well, I can’t reveal yesterday’s secret baseball location due to the fact that those pictures are trapped on a computer that I can not access right now.  Luckily I had this shot from Point of Rocks in reserve.   We’ll cover the baseball next week.

Sorry for the missed posts last week.  I would like to say they were caused by some sort of technical issue, but the only issue was the scheduling of time at MDP HQ.   This week we’re back with some interesting historical areas.

Yesterday MDP was driving down I-270, which if you follow it all the way, requires you to cut through the battlefield of Monocacy.  So, we’ll start off this week with a monument from the battlefield.  This one was placed here on the centennial of the battle.

Late post today so I am quickly pulling up another bridge picture.   Here you can see the single diagonal truss that holds up the small roddy road bridge.  I know… enough with the bridges.

Just a note,  I have more interesting pictures from Mt. Pleasant, and I even have more pics from Point of Rocks to share in the weeks ahead.   For now, a bit of history about Point of Rocks.  This is today the site where the mainline of the B&O splits to continue towards baltimore or to turn south towards Washington DC.  The station and this sign sit right behind the split, so to the to the station is not possible without crossing over tracks.   

The station was designed by Francis Baldwin and was finished in 1876 at around the same time that the split in the main line was created to take the tracks to DC.   Today the mainline to Baltimore still carries freight and the subdivision to DC carries frieght as well as MARC traffic and Amtrak.  

Prior to being known for it’s sceninc combinations of switches and it’s great station, this area was known for being the site where confederates captured a supply chain in the civil war.  There is more civil war history in Point of Rocks, but it doesn’t take place at  the station and we will discuss that in the future.

The Point of Rocks B&O station

How else did MDP spend it’s fourth of July weekend?     By travlling to one of our state’s most famous rail stations.

I have so many more bridge pictures.  However, it’s time for this first bridge week to come to an end.  As is usual for these theme weeks the extra pics will start to appear in the regular MDP rotation for the next few months.   All over the state there are celebrations and exhibits that will appear between now and 2015 to commemorate the 150th anniversarry of the Civil War.   While we are still a little shy of 150 years since Gettysburg, the first three days of July are cause for cermony in any year.    Today’s shot, which was taken outside of the Loy’s Station is “bridging” the theme of covered bridges with gettysburg, as this sign denotes that Union soldiers marched north through this location on their way first to Emmitsburg and then to the battle.

Today we are visiting the Utica covered bridge.  The southenmost of the three bridges, it is located about midway between Frederick and Thurmont.   The Utica covered bridge originally spanned the Monocacy river.  It was damaged by a flood in 1889 and what remained was moved to this spot.

This is a shot from the inside of the Loy’s Station bridge.  Though, it’s park setting and 360 degree accessibility make this the most picturesque of all three Frederick bridges, it’s unfortunately not 100% original.  Two arsonists burned the bridge in 1991.  While many of the timbers are from the first bridge, much of it is new.

There are 6 covered bridges that survive in Maryland today.   We’ve visited one of them already, the Jericho covered bridge which spans between Baltimore County and Harford County.    There are two more in Cecil County, and there are three in Frederick County, which we will visit this week.

From Brunswick we have today’s sign picture. Like many old storefronts in towns that have historic charm, this paint store has been turned into an antique shop.