MDP follower, Adam sends this pic from the Maryland House travel plaza, asking why MDP’s coverage of Frank Zappa has been so poor.  We have no answer, only shame.

This site has hosted plenty of mill stone pictures.  This is the latest, which was taken outside the Gambrill Mill on the Mococacy Battlefield grounds.

Last Thursday, MDP took a trip to Aberdeen to see the Orioles’ short season A team, the Aberdeen Ironbirds.  The team was brought there by Cal Ripken (and his family), who grew up in the area and who is an integral part of the experience at the park.   The team name is based off of the combination of Cal being the Iron Man and being an Oriole.

The ballpark, Ripken Stadium, (pictured previously here), is a great place. Every seat is close enough to the game to put you at risk of being hit by a foul ball.   I have pictures of the action from inside the stadium, but they are trapped on film right now.  So today we bring you this souvenir cap with the Ironbirds logo.   You can note Cal’s number 8 on the tail of the plane.

This is the cannon that sits outside of the Concord Point lighthouse in Havre De Grace.   It’s plaque tells the story of the man who, until captured,  held the battery there against the British in the war of 1812. For those unfamiliar with the geography of Havre De Grace, it sits at the mouth of the Susquehanna river, where it meets the Chesapeake. 

A full size picture of the plaque on the cannon follows:

Here’s a shot of a pass just before the train tracks go over the susquehanna river.  I would like to find out how old this is becasue the size certianly implies that it was built quite a while ago. 

Contributing photographer Bryan sent this picture along.  It is the  Edgewood train station, one of the places where Obama stopped during his train ride to DC for the inaguaration.   This is the view looking at the southbound tracks towards Baltimore. 

Today’s photo of Ripken stadium comes to use from MDP baseball correspondant, Bryan.  

The stadium isn’t quite fulfilling the “if you build it, they will come” philosophy.  However, it is interesting that the team was bought by the Ripken family to fill their stadium, rather than the other way around.     It is home to the Aberdeen Ironbirds, a single A affiliate of the Orioles.

 The stadium is part of a complex of baseball fields, including Cal Sr’s yard, a replica of Camden Yards for youth baseball.  From I-95 you can clearly see the red brick hotel which is shaped to resembe the Warehouse from Camden Yards and which is appropriately placed in right field of cal sr’s yard.  It is in left field relative to ripken stadium. 

I was taking a train north this past weekend and thought it might be a cool idea to take a picture of Havre de Grace looking south down the susquehana from inside the train as it crosses the river.  I wanted it to be the opposite of this picture. 

However, things didn’t work out so perfectly.  The shot that I wanted and that I waited to capture, ended up having a post right in the middle of it.  That’s just a risk you take when trying to take a picture of something while you are in a train moving at 70 MPH.  So this was the second shot I took.  I still like this one becasue of the support structure for the old bridge that is visible in the bottom left corner.  

Today’s picture comes from contributor Adam, who offers us this shot of the Conowingo Dam.  While the Dam is certainly a big factor in the Maryland landscape, it was built by a Philadelphia Company.  In fact, it is a hydroelectric generating facility and the dam was built in 1928 by the Philadelphia Electric Co. 

It’s seven original turbines, combined with four newer ones, produce over 500 megawatts of electricity, making it a very sizable generation facility with an ability, at peak flows, to generate  50% to 75% of the power that a 1970′s nuclear reactor could produce.  The dam also creates the Conowingo Reservoir, which is the cooling pond for a nuclear power plant further upstream.  

 The dam iteself serves as the Susquehanna crossing for US-1, which is where this photo was taken. 

Also for MDP reference, here’s a shot of the susquehanna further downstream.

I’m unsure what I should call these plants on the side of the bay. Suggestions?

I was really just looking for a neat picture.  This one was taken at the same time as the celebration swim. 

How did you celebrate MDP’s 100th post?  (which was yesterday by the way) 

I hope you did it in a safer manner than this fool.  

Thanks to everyone who visits for making MDP a real pleasure to create.

Also, very special thanks to everyone who has contributed over the last few months, in either pictures or comments you all are very appreciated.  

We all know what HDG is famous for, other than the light house, Cal Ripken, and the decoy museum…….Bridges.  Here’s a view from just north of the passenger railroad bridge, looking out towards the rt. 40 bridge.  

Also, this post has made me especially aware of the wishlist request for a map on wach post showing its location.  That’s in the works, so don’t worry. 

As pointed out in the comments, the author of a prior post made a terrible oversight in this photo as they didn’t emphasise the building you see here: The Jerusalem Gun Factory.  From what I gathered in the tour, weapon stocks were built in this building for a short time and hence it garnered the name.  

There isn’t much to say about Concord Point Lighthouse that isn’t covered by the phrase, “It is awesome.”  

The lighthouse was manned for the majority of its life (which started in 1827) by the O’neil family of Havre De Grace.   (more Havre De Grace posts to come)   One of them actually defended the lighthouse with a cannon and there is a monument to this action on the water-side of the light.  The keeper’s home still stands across the street form the tower.  It too was built in 1827.  

According to the sign in front, it is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the bay.  

However, it is not the oldest lighthouse on the Chesapeake, at least not according to the National park service.  So where is the oldest? 

Being from Maryland, we are required to enjoy all things that are replicas of others in miniature, so I’m sure you will enjoy this place.  

Welcome to Jerusalem Mill Villiage, an area that is being restored to its historic appearance with the help of the state park and the friends of Jerusalem Mills.  Their end goal is to turn it into a sort of Williamsburg in miniature. 

They have done a really great job of using rather limited resources to create a very authentic feel.  The museum in the mill building tells the whole story of the mill and bridge (featured yesterday) and adjacent buildings as well as the efforts being made to save them.  If you visit on a sunday you can also enjoy the working blacksmith shop and the general store, which was looted by the confederates during the civil war.  The mill building itself has been rebuilt as best as possible to historic specifications and now houses the museum as well as the park headquarters for Gunpowder falls state park. 

Here we see the Jericho Covered Bridge in Harford County, just outside Gunpowder Falls State Park HQ near Rt. 1.   (Some people say it crosses into Baltimore County, but my map firmly drops in Harford.  You can discuss.)  The bridge skillfully crosses the little gunpowder falls.   It was built just a bit after 1860 and is the last covered bridge still standing in the area, though not in the state.   It was renovated in 1980 to handle modern car traffic and to restore some of its exterior features. 

You can take a walk along the nature trails near the bridge and the markings on the trails suggest that if you have a horse, you can apparently take it for a walk on the trails too.

Of course, while exploring the bridge, the www.Marylanddailyphoto.com (tell your friends) staff was warned not to enter the bridge as it is supposedly haunted.   As this warning was not accepted, it is possible that I have now been haunted, as well as my camera and the website.  So I’m just putting that out there as a warning for you. 
What’s also interesting about the bridge is that it’s located right next to a cluster of historic buildings in the Jerusalem Mill Village, which you will get to see in tomorrow’s post.