Baltimore Buildings

Baltimore Buildings

Baltimore has some beautiful buildings. So I grouped these images to focus on the buildings. 

This gold topped building is prominent from most downtown locations (and is a great help to finding your way around).  

And as noted earlier, Baltimore has some "different" ways to keep you from sitting on window ledges. 

And there is always the baseball park.

But there is so much more. 

I loved the colors of this shot at night. 

Here is a shot of the Hippodrome Theater (Theatre??) at night. Wished I had more to time to go in and see it on the inside. 

I don't know what the reason is for the odd structure on top of this building but I like it and like the other image, it helps you know where you are if you can spot it. (Not solar panels, not antennas, maybe just for looks?) 

Loved the green tint of the building. This is located at the harbor near the USS Constellation and the Jewish Menorah shown in the first post of Baltimore. 

An attractive building of a dying business. I used to love reading a paper but the las one I had was a Sunday paper that more resembled the thickness of the Wednesday paper, totally lacking in pages of Arts and Business, and other interesting things.

Like the green building, the blue of the windows caught my eye. gain at the harbor. 

A better shot of that gold topped building.  And part of that strange topped building. 

Typical home in Baltimore city (not suburbs). Most homes in the city are three stories. I image land is frightfully expensive there which explains the three stories. When you think about the space a stair case takes up for the floor space, I image the rooms are not very big. From what I could tell, the buildings are two rooms deep.

On my ride to the train museum (see previous post) there was a lower income area and I asked what they cost. The response was $1200 a month.

I spotted this outside one home and thought it was an old coal chute but the owner told me that no it was just the way into the basement. I asked him why his was the only home on the block like that? He had no idea, that was just the way it was.

By the way, the owner told me that the coal chute is that smaller brown door to the side.

If you notice in the images above, there is a small gate to the side of the building. And I do mean small. This is barely wide enough for the average person to walk though without turning slightly. 

And in case you are wondering what the backyards are like, here is an image in a nice part of town.

This one caught my eye as it had the North Carolina ECU Pirate colors. 

I like this one for the colors in the bricks. Notice the faintly colored rainbow of colors. 

images of old buildings such as this church are everywhere.

This is my mystery building. It appeared to be closed and no longer in use. The mystery is why were there steel plates around the windows on the 2nd floor? There are not on the first floor or the third floor, just the 2nd. And they were on both sides of the corner building. If anybody knows the answer, let me know.

The home of Mary Pickersgill where she sewed the flag that is known as the Star Spangled Banner Flag. 

Plaque for the home. 

And the famous Chandler building were Social Security was started and the first check issues. 

An interesting architectural design that caught my eye. 

An old harbor building. 

Two shots of a building seen on the east side of town, just north of the harbor. Never was able to find out was it was. Anybody know, please post as message. 

And to finish, some skyline images taken from Federal Hill. 

The Clock tower and then the ships of the harbor. 

Fort McHenry (and the Star Spangled Banner)

Fort McHenry 

(and the Star Spangled Banner) 

Fort McHenry, famous for the location of the flag written about by Francis Scott Key when he wrote the Star Spangled Banner. 

Many people think it was in relation to the Revolutionary War when we fought for our independence from England but actually it was in the War of 1812 which lasted for three years. Many don't know we had to fight a second time to remain free of Britain. As the plaque below details (sorry for the angle of the image but only way to keep lighting from messing up image) it is a forgotten war.

The British were trying to attack Baltimore and had to take possession of Fort McHenry to do so. So the British sailed into the Bay to attack. 

Francis Key was on board a British ship out in the bay. 

 (If you can't read the fine print) Key was negotiating the release of an American in a prisoner of war exchange.  Unfortunately, the British became aware the Key and his associate had become aware of the impending attack by the British upon Ft. McHenry and detained Key until the attack was over.

Photo of the embarkments. 

View of the bay from the viewpoint of Ft McHenry cannons. 

History records the attack was long and heavy with the cannons firing all night. As the sun came up Key and the British were anxious to see which flag was flying over Ft McHenry. The rest is history as we all know the answer. The museum there has illustrations of the draft he wrote and the changes in wording he made. 

Yes, the flag has a different count than today's flag. See image below for which flag flies when. 

By the way, they have plaques of each state in the ground as you enter the site. Each state's plaque is placed in the order they entered the United States. Georgia, my home state is #4. (I always thought it was the third to enter the US.)

A  trivia question, what was the last state to be admitted before Alaska and Hawaii? I.I the 48th state?
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 Coming up next Buildings of Baltimore and then the Clock Tower and then the ships. 

Baltimore Trains and Buses

Baltimore

Trains and Buses

(Yes, Virginia, there really is a B&O Railroad other than Monopoly)

OK, so in the last post, I showed you the sights but how do you get around without going broke? In Baltimore, easy. In Baltimore there are three mass transit systems. (1) the standard buses. (2) the Electric trains, and (3) the FREE bus system. Did mention the word FREE? Good. 

So I didn't get a shot of the standard bus. It was bitterly cold the day I shot the buses and I simply didn't get one. But the other two were interesting. 

First, lets look at the electric trains. Some were shot but others were very long. 

 Here are two that were very long. 

These even require unusual traffic signs. If you were in the that little silver car and a train was approaching, you would observe a sign telling you no left turn. OK, you would see the train coming toward you. BUT, what if the train was going the SAME way you were going and the train is on the right side of the road. (Imagine the little car headed the other way). You would see large electric "No Right Turn" signs light up as the train approached you from the rear. You have to stay on your toes so to speak with the trains near you. 

The electric pickup device of the train. The rails on the ground are not electrified. 

Now, about that FREE part. 

There is a set of buses called the Charm City Circulators that travel in a set loop. One goes north. Another goes East - West. And another goes Southeast to Fort McHenry. (It's coming up) You just wait at the appropriate stop and when they pull up, you hop on. They come by about every 10 to 20 minutes. Important note! The stops for these buses are not the same as the other buses. Be forewarned, I told you so! There are free maps all over the city and the stop vary from great to a sign on a pole. The nice ones have benches with a shelter from that 25 degree wind chill. The sometimes also had a LED screen that showed the estimated time of the next bus. (They were not that common). The only problem I ever had was I forgot which street I was on and as I walked up tot he corner, the bus kept going. A quick look at my bus map showed the stop was one block over. (And 15 minutes in the cold). Other than that, it was a great time. I was able to travel to any major part of the city and quickly walk the rest of the way to wherever I wanted. // A word of warning, don't be on the bus at 2:45 to 3:00 PM. The bus I was on was filled with school kids when school let out. Luckily they were off within minutes. Apparently the regular school buses carry the students to locations far away and they handle the nearby students. 

A nice night shot of the electric train. 

I tried panning , moving the camera to track the train. You can see the blur of the background through the windows. 

Again. 

And a little mystery. I notice the bumps in the road. Nobody knew for sure why there were there except most guessed they were to keep cars from getting on the electric train path. Good guess except for the fact they were nowhere else in the city that I could find. There were only on this short stretch of road. 

I didn't realize I caught the words on the bus until I got home and processed the images. Now about that person in post one that pulled up and parked in the middle of my shot. 

Trains are cool. I had a train set as a kid and about 10 years ago, I pulled it out and set it up on Christmas eve night for my kids. As old as they wee, they were enthralled with it. Forget the electronic stuff, this was cool. I still have it and occasionally set it up. (Guess I need to do it this year for Christmas) 

So Sunday in the cold I hoped on one of the free buses and rode out to the railroad museum. And yes there really is a B&O railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.

Imagine having to fill that diesel tank up! It is the width of the engine. I would hate to do it on a cold day (like the day I was there). 

 End of the line. 

A little bit of history. 

The Eisenhower car. 

 I always though the wheel of a train were shaped like an upside down U wrapping around the rail. But they don't because they can't. Look carefully at this cross over set of rails. The only way for the wheel to pass over it is if the wheels extend down on the inside part of the rail and ride on top of the rail, but they cannot extend downward on the outside of the rail.

 The Chesapeake and Ohio. 

 

Looks just like the old HO scale railroad car I had (and still have) as a kid. 

 Next, Fort McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner!