Random Shots From A Moving Car
We were coming out of Baltimore and on a whim I decided to see if I cold take some pictures. Since I am a lousy picture taker anyway, none of these surprised me. The white building on the right in this picture is the old Montgomery Ward Building on Monroe Street. In its day Wards was a big business in Baltimore. I think they have now turned this into either apartments or office spaces.
Oh, if ONLY they would put walkways like this in Charleston. To get anywhere in the Inner Harbor there is an above the street walkway. VERY ingenious. What WILL they think of next??????
The structure in the background of this picture is the Old Baltimore Shot Tower. This structure is 234 feet 3 inches tall, made of red brick manufactured by the Burns and Russell Brick Company. My grandmother's aunt, Mary Anne Kaiser, married John Knecht, and if I'm not mistaken the Knechts eventually bought out the Burns and Russell Company. The Shot Tower was completed in 1828, and at the time was the tallest structure in the United States. The walls were 4.5 feet thick from the bottom up to about 50 feet, at which point they narrowed in increments of four inches until at the top the wall is 21 inches thick. It was built by Jacob Wolfe. Molten lead was dropped from a platform at the top of the tower into a vat of cold water at the bottom of the tower to produce "drop shot" for pistols and rifles, and "molded shot" for larger weapons, such as cannon. When it was hardened, dried and polished it was sorted into 25 pound bags. About 100,000 bags of shot were produced each year, with the amount being able to be doubled in time of war or other emergency. The shot tower remained the tallest structure in the United States until 1846 when Trinity Church in New York was built, and remained the tallest free standing structure until 1884 when the Washington Monument in Washington, D. C. was completed. The original owner was Merchant's Shot Tower Company, which closed in 1894. In 1921 it was purchased by Union Oil Company who planned to tear it down and build a gas station in its place. There were many objections from the public, and by 1928 enough money had been raised to purchase the structure and present it to the City of Baltimore. In 1972 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
The structure in the center with the clock on it is the Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower. This tower was constructed in 1911 and was the tallest structure in Baltimore at that time. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The tower was modeled after the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, was designed by Joseph Evans Sperry, and was built by Captain Isaac Emerson. Emerson invented the headache remedy, Bromo-Seltzer. He had a genuine interest in the City of Baltimore, and a friend once noted " . . .he interests himself thoroughly of everything tending to advance our city, and is a patron of all worthy enterprises seeking to push Baltimore to the front." The most interesting feature of the tower is the still functioning tower clock. There is a clock face on all four sides of the tower. When I was little and would stay with my grandmother on Carey Street, I would sleep in the third floor back bedroom. You could see the tower clock well enough from there to be able to tell time on it. The face of the clocks have the words BROMO-SELTZER on them rather than numbers. At one time it was topped by a 51 foot tall revolving replica of a blue Bromo-Seltzer bottle which was lit by 596 lights and could been seen from 20 miles away. Unfortunately, the bottle was removed in 1936 due to structural concerns, and much to the chagrin of many in Baltimore has never been replaced. The Bromo Seltzer Tower is located at 21 Eutaw Street at Lombard Street and now houses the Baltimore Office of Promotions & Arts.
OUR FINAL ADVENTURE OF THIS VACATION
This really should be my last, not my first posting about our vacation, but in order for it to come out the way I wanted I had to work backward and I forgot this section, so you will just have to deal with it being first. We had a great time--we visited the Inner Harbor, Lexington Market, Annapolis, ate crab everyday, went to dinner with my cousins and also with Phyllis, Ricky and Terry, bought Rheb's Candy, Utz Potato Chips, Ann's hotdogs, apple cider, fresh Maryland vegetables, including tomatoes that are absolutely delicious, and, no exaggeration, are big enough that one slice makes a sandwich, went to Fells Point, the Enoch Pratt Library, and so much more. In the week we were there we, at one time or another, were physically in thirteen of the twenty-three counties of Maryland and Baltimore City--Baltimore County, Howard County, Carroll County, Anne Arundel County, Prince Georges County, Queen Anne County, Talbot County, Caroline County, Dorchester County, Wicomico County, Somerset County, Kent County and Worcester County.
On the way home we decided to do something different--take the long way home. Instead of traveling on I-95, we took Route 50 across the Bay Bridge, then eventually through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The following pictures I got off the Internet as it was dark by the time we got to these--we didn't leave Annapolis until after 6:00 PM.
This is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, also known as the Bay Bridge. The official name of the bridge is the William Preston Lane, Jr. Memorial Bridge. William Preston Lane, Jr. was a governor of Maryland who initiated the construction of the bridge. The Bay Bridge connects the eastern shore of Maryland to the western shore of Maryland. The bridge is a vital link between the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area and tourist areas such as Ocean City, Maryland, Deleware's resorts, and Assateague Island and Chincoteague, Virginia. Studies were done as early as the 1880s to consider a bridge across the Chesapeake Bay. The first proposal came in 1907 and called for a crossing between Tolchester Beach and Baltimore. In subsequent years other proposals were made for a span in the same area. In 1927 local businessmen were authorizied to finance the construction was canceled forllowing the Stock Market Carsh of 1929. Ferries were used to cross the Bay until the completion of the bridge, the first service running form Annapolis to Broad Creek on Kent Island, roughly where the bridge is today. Later there were ferries between Annapolis and Claiborne near St. Michaels, and one from Annapolis to Matapeake. In 1941 the ferries were taken over by the State Roads Commission, and two years later the western terminus was moved from Annapolis to Sandy Point. IN 1938 the General Assembly authorized legislation for construction of a bridge between Sandy Point and Kent Island, but involvement in World War II delayed the work. Finally, in 1947 legislation was passed to begin construction. Ground was broken in January 1949 and on July 30, 1952 the bridge opened to traffic. At the time the Bay Bridge was the longest continuous over-water steel structure and the third longest bridge in the world. On November 9, 1967 the bridgee was officially dedicated to William Preston Lane, Jr. In that same year it was determined that with the increase in traffic on the bridge and second span was needed and in 1969 a second bridge was begun. This span was completed on June 28, 1973. There are now studies being done to handle the expected 40% increase in traffic by 2025.
This is an awesome picture of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The bridge tunnel was built nearly 50 years ago and has captured worldwide attention as a modern engineering wonder. It crosses over and under open water when the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean and links Southeastern Virginia and the Delmarva Peninsula. It was pened on April 15, 1964 and was selected as "One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the MOdern World" in a worldwide competition. In 1965 it was also distinguished as "The outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement" by the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 1995 construction of a parallel crossong was begun and opened to four lane traffic on April 19, 1999. From shore to shore, the Bridge TUnnel measure 17.6 miles and is considered the world's largest bridge tunnel complex. Construction of the span required undertaking a project of more than 12 miles of low-level trestle, two one mile tunnels, two bridges, almost two miles of causeway, four manmade islands and 5 1/2 miles of approach roads, totally 23 miles. The bridge was officially named the Lucius J. Kellam, Jr Bridge-Tunnel in honor of the man who spearheaded the construction. There will apparently be additional tunnels constructed at a later date. When we when through there was considerable repair work being done on one of the tunnels.
This is just the inside of one of the two tunnels on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. 
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