Monday, June 27, 2016

Monday, June 20, 2016

B & O Railroad's Oliver Viaduct across Main St., Ellicott City

The Baltimore-Frederick Turnpike went down Ellicott's Mills Main Street and the trains had to cross over it, so the Oliver Viaduct (stone 3 arch bridge) was built.  However, the flood of 1868 destroyed two of the arches. Later they were replaced with a metal span which now reads Ellicott City.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Incredibly high flood levels sign on Main Street

Floods and more floods have done various degrees of damage over the years.  Recording just the major floods, this sign on the Oliver Viaduct (part of the stone railroad bridge was destroyed by a flood) is striking.  There is a number on the railing of the horrific 1868 flood when waters reached 21.5 feet above street level.  Jonathon Ellicott's home was lost in the 1972 flood but his brother George's home survived and has since been moved uphill.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Waverly, Jacob Bromwell's wheat fan and Poe's uncle

George Howard at "Waverly" hosted a timed test of Jacob Bromwell's patented fan - it cleaned 26 1/2 bushels of wheat in 7 1/2 minutes. That year, 1819, Bromwell moved to the growing city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he started a company which is still producing exquisite tin, copper, wire-woven and wooden old-style kitchen tools HERE