Baltimore Civil Engineering History

In 1761 when first approached to perform the survey, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon did not envision the task that was before them or the legacy their line would leave behind. After encounters with rebels, hostile Indians, weather and politicians, their surveyed line stands today as a remarkable engineering achievement.

The Maryland Historical marker on Federal Hill reads: Since the founding of Baltimore, 1729, this hill has been a popular point for viewing the city's growth. Here 4000 people feasted, 1788, to celebrate the radification by Maryland of the federal constitution and in honor of the new government gave the place its name. An observatory, built here, 1795 signaled city merchants of the approach of their vessels, a service which lasted a century. shipyards have long been located near the hill, and it has been mined for clay and sand. During the Civil War, unition troops fortified the site and it was made a public park, 1880.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was born out of the desire of Baltimore businessmen to compete for western trade with New York after the Erie Canal opened trade to the new Midwestern states. Early in 1827, group of businessmen meeting at the home of George Brown, a director of Alex Brown and Sons, the great Baltimore investment banking firm, decided to push for the formulation of the railroad. At the end of February of that year, the Maryland General Assembly approved the incorporation of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad Company. Since its inception as one of the first railroads in the world, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was a great incubator of engineering entrepreneurs, particularly in its first seventy-five years. Being the first large scale railroad to begin building in the western hemisphere, the B&O needed innovation and invention in order to succeed in its goal of bringing goods and passengers from the great waterways of the Midwest to the port of Baltimore. The brand new enterprise attracted many inventors, tinkerers and others who dreamt that the spark of a new idea could be developed into an innovation that brings fame and riches. This was the cutting new technology of the mid nineteenth century. The railroad spawned not only a quick, inexpensive way to bring large amounts of goods and people from town to town to city to city, but also brought a new kind of society—a more modern society with new ways of life, a new concept of distance, and new ways to earn a living—new professions; civil and mechanical engineering became modern engineering disciplines.

It would be hard to name a single American family that has had a more direct physical and cultural impact on one American city than the Latrobes have had on Baltimore. Perhaps because their legacy was actual rather than monetary, they are not listed among Baltimore's great philanthropists: Peabody, Hopkins, Sheppard, and Pratt. But they should be. The city's most venerable work of architecture, the Baltimore Cathedral, and its premier park, Druid Hill, are largely their works. Latrobe family members were equally important to the building and operation of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the city's great 19^th century transportation system. Their other projects, combining both architecture and engineering—bridges, buildings, and park structures—are still in use and are much-admired landmarks. This paper concentrates on the first three generations of Latrobes in America, considers their similarities in family traits, education, and approach to design, and looks at what they built in and around Baltimore. Male descendants of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the patriarch of the Baltimore Latrobes, tended to be engineers and lawyers. Engineering still predominates as a profession among male family members today.

Robert Edward Lee, famous General of the Confederate forces during the Civil War, began his Army career as an engineer, eventually serving in Baltimore during the period 1848–1852. He is generally referred to as the first District Engineer of the Baltimore District, Corps of Engineers. This paper will provide a documentation of Lee's engineering background, a personal look at his four years serving in this city, and document the reason for his later success on the field of battle.

Since the 1970s, a school of historians have focused on the role of public works facilities in the growth and development of American cities. Some of these historians have linked the development of urban infrastructure to the broader political, economic, social and environmental history of American cities. The study of water supply systems is an excellent measure of urban development because of its central role in the history of every city and town. Every municipality has constructed a system for it commercial and residential uses. Building water systems was on-going process, taking many decades during which one may gain useful insights into long-term developments of a municipality's political history, the health of its residents, construction methods of the time, and patterns of residential and commercial growth. Like other cities, Baltimore's water history followed a pattern of public debate, political decision-making, and technological developments. Through the process, the water supply was linked to the city's economic well-being as well as the health of the residents. This paper reflects the emergence and eventual consolidation of two sources; public and private, which defined the development of Baltimore's water supply through the mid-nineteenth century.

The City of Baltimore, founded in 1729, is rich in culture and heritage as evidenced by many remarkable civil engineering and architectural landmarks including bridges, tall office buildings and dams necessary to support a growing urban center. In the 1800s. Baltimore's small population was served by the Baltimore Water Company, a private company which owned and operated the water distribution system that included several mills dams and springs within the City limits. However, as the City began to experience growth, the water supply facilities could not keep up with the demand. The City purchased the Baltimore Water Company in 1854 and proceeded to construct additional dams and pumping facilities. The Lake Roland Dam was constructed in 1862 on the Jones Falls, however, this new addition could not meet the City's demand for water. The Baltimore City's Water Department decided to construct another reservoir at Druid Hill. When the City of Baltimore bought Druid Hill in 1860 from Lloyd Rogers, the vast estate to the northwest of Mount Royal overlooked a gorgeous view city.

This paper describes the evolution of the anaerobic sludge digestion process at the City of Baltimore, Maryland's 180-million gallons per day Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant through the twentieth century. Baltimore has consistently remained at the forefront of digester technology in the United States. Through much of the twentieth century, about 160-dry tons per day of sludge have been produced and digested at the plant. Back River WWTP was one of the first facilities in the United States in which sludge was treated in tanks separate from the main wastewater liquid flow stream. By 1921, 20 above-ground, low-rate, digestion tanks were in use, including the Imhoff tank configuration. These were replaced by six 100-feet diameter below-ground tanks, which were converted to single-stage, high-rate, mesophilic digesters in the early 1970s. In the early 1990s, two three-million gallon egg-shaped digesters were placed into operation to supplement the high rate digesters. This was one of the early egg-shaped digester installations in the United States. In 2003, Baltimore City completed the construction of a 25-dry tons per day Process Evaluation Facility to assess the feasibility of converting to the two-phase (acid-gas) mesophilic anaerobic digestion process, which is an emerging technology with only a small number of installations world-wide.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the merchants of Baltimore were wealthy—a wealth built on the export of flour, primarily to the West Indies and South America. At the time, Baltimore was the world's leading exporter of flour. This flour came down the Susquehanna River to Baltimore. If the trade of Baltimore was to grow and increase, then Baltimore merchants would have to gain access to the agricultural riches of the Potomac valley and the Ohio Territories beyond. In the technology of the day, this meant the construction of a canal between Baltimore and the Potomac River, later to be called the Maryland Cross-Cut canal. This canal would connect to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, then being contemplated from Washington, D.C. to the Ohio Valley, at some point above Washington. Between 1820 and 1851, no fewer than ten separate engineering and other feasibility studies were undertaken by some of the leading civil engineers of the day on this canal. Despite this effort, no route was found that proved practical except along the Anacostia River. This route, if it had been built, would have channeled the trade of the west to Baltimore's competitors along the Potomac River - Georgetown, Alexandria and Washington City. In finding no feasible direct connections between Baltimore and the Potomac valley, the engineers studying the Maryland Cross-Cut Canal never investigated innovative approaches, such as the use of inclined planes as was being used on the Morris Canal in New Jersey. With reluctance, the merchants of Baltimore turned away from the idea of a canal to an even more innovative approach, the railroad. This led to the development of the United States' first long distance railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio (B & O). But the idea of a cross-cut canal died hard. Long after the B & O was operational, more studies were undertaken for a canal connection between Baltimore and the west. The Maryland Cross-Cut canal became the most studied canal never to be constructed in the U.S.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad pioneered the concept of the common carrier railroad in 1827. In 1835, the B&O's Washington Branch was the first major rail link to the United State's capitol. In fact, the B&O's Washington spur may be the most important branch line of any railroad in the world. Immediately after it was opened, the line attracted a denser traffic than the railroad's main line and produced the lion's share of the B&O's profits. The B&O was chartered in 1827, and construction on the main line began the next year. The first tickets for passenger excursions were sold in 1829, and the twenty-one kilometer (thirteen-mile) line from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills opened in 1830. Regular service was provided using horses for motive power, but by 1831, steam locomotives took over passenger trains, and horses were completely eliminated from freight service within the next few years. The Baltimore & Ohio was the first common carrier railroad chartered in the United States. It wasn't the first in the world; that accolade belongs to the Stockton & Darlington and Manchester & Liverpool, both English, in 1825. The B&O sent its first engineers and financiers across the Atlantic to inspect and learn from these pioneer railways to learn the latest technology. The railroad was conceived as a means to capture western trade for the port of Baltimore. After seeing the success of transporting passengers and freight from the Maryland communities it passed through to Baltimore, it became obvious that there would be a large demand for rail transportation between Washington, DC and Baltimore. On March 9, 1833 the State of Maryland chartered the Washington branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The stock as well as the charter was separate from that of the original B&O. The state helped fund the branch's construction by buying or subscribing to shares. Many years later, in the 1890's, the state and the railroad had a long running dispute over dividends and the price paid for shares bought back by the rail corporation. This culminated in hearings held by a special committee of the General Assembly a few years after the turn of the 1900's. The state ended its ownership interest, and sold all of its shares back to the railroad.

Few motorists driving along venerable Howard Street in Baltimore, Maryland, are ever aware of any activity going on below the pavement, but lying directly below much of the street is a century-old railroad tunnel that still serves as a key link in the rail route along the eastern seaboard, and freight trains pass through it day and night. Far less visible than the former Pennsylvania Railroad's "Broad Way," now owned and operated by Amtrak, the Howard Street Tunnel is part of CSX Transportation Company's (CSXT) main line through the city. Thousands of passengers ride Amtrak and commuter trains into Union Station in Jones Falls Valley every day, and many assume this is the primary line for freight, too. In fact, very few freight trains traverse this Amtrak line today, leaving CSXTs largely unseen line to host almost all of the north-south freight traffic moving through Baltimore.

This paper presents a summary of the beginning of railroading in America, the origin of the B & O Railroad Museum's 1884 Passenger Car Shop (Roundhouse) with its unusual features and the sequence of events that led up to the partial collapse of the low roof on February 16th and 17th, 2003. Included is a summary of the weather conditions that caused this catastrophic event. An analysis of the failure mechanisms based on field investigation and engineering evaluation is thoroughly discussed. The emergency measures taken to save the building along with the subsequent design and reconstruction of the Roundhouse are presented herein.

In 1904, an urban fire raged out of control and destroyed downtown Baltimore. The disaster resulted in important lessons learned, impacting not only Baltimore but other cities as well. These revelations included the necessity of planned emergency procedures within city government, a call for nationally standardized firefighting equipment, and the need to address the rapidly evolving demands of modernization at the start of the 20th century.

Built in 1853, with expansion and remodeling by famous architects of the time, the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion stands as the crown jewel of Mount Vernon Place and showcases the luxurious life style of Baltimore's high society. In 1971, the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion's significance was officially recognized by the Maryland Historic Trust. It was also listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Mount Vernon Place Historic District. The brownstone manor was once the home of Mary Garrett-Jacobs, the social arbiter of Baltimore City for many years. After several other owners in history, in 1962, the Engineering Society of Baltimore purchased the mansion and since then it has served as the home for dedicated engineers who contribute their intelligence and efforts to renovate and maintain this historic structure.

On January 1, 1842, the three Philadelphia County Commissioners celebrated a grand opening of their new suspension bridge over the Schuylkill River just outside city limits at Fairmount. The toll-free two-lane highway crossing was the first of its kind in North America. Philadelphians celebrate the first day of each year, Mummers Day, as a traditional major holiday, which may have added some sort of festive air to the event, although the suspension bridge preceded the now-famous parades by several decades. Fairmount Suspension Bridge was one of the most significant bridges ever built in the USA for several reasons. It was a public structure, as opposed to a private enterprise, and therefore it occupied an important place in our civil engineering history among the forerunners of thousands of state and county highway structures all over the continent. It was built using innovative design theory and construction techniques taught at the world's foremost engineering school in an era when academic bridge building concepts were almost unknown in this country. Most importantly, it was a great success, stimulating dozens of other designers and builders, with the result that wire cable suspension bridges became the norm, chain cable suspension bridges soon were phased out, and design leadership in long span bridges was passed from Europe to America. Ironically, despite the great political and engineering significance of the 1842 Fairmount Suspension Bridge, and its 33-year record of reliable service, no marker of any kind identifies the location at this time. The purpose of this essay is to illuminate the obscure history of this remarkable structure, traditionally known to Philadelphians as The Wire Bridge, correcting a few distortions and misunderstandings that have crept into the historical record during the 20^th century.

The Bollman truss bridge at Savage, Maryland, is the last surviving structure of its type in the United States. While much has been written about the career of its designer, Wendel Bollman, and the basic behavior and design concept of the truss system, there remain some outstanding questions regarding the truss design. The purpose of this paper is to address some of these questions by the use of indeterminate structural analysis. It is found that the system of Bollman members performs the primary load carrying function, while the diagonal bracing system serves to distribute non-uniform live loads among the Bollman members, and provide a degree of structural redundancy to the truss. Field inspections indicate that the lower chord members are highly unusual in that they are capable of transmitting only compressive loads through their connections. In a strange type of behavior for a simply supported truss, these lower chord members are found to act in compression under a wide range of loading conditions, being most important to the performance of the bridge when non-uniform loads act. It is lastly proposed that this compression behavior of the lower chord members may provide an explanation for the observed retrofit of the lower chord members in only the end panels of the truss.

The objective of this paper is to describe and provide an initial evaluation of a new course in the history of structural engineering being offered at Johns Hopkins University. Perspectives on the Structures is a study of the history of structural design to demonstrate to students the discipline of structural art and to give them the tools necessary to evaluate structures as works of structural art. The course covers structures from the Industrial Revolution to modern times with a focus on long span bridges and tall buildings. Our most ambitious objective for the students was that they be able to research the social, symbolic and scientific aspects of structures in the world around them and express their findings clearly in both written, graphical, and spoken form. Through slide lectures in the tradition of art history, combined with extensive writing and calculation assignments, the students perceived that they had indeed obtained this objective. Their performance on a final project consisting of a 20 page paper with calculations and a verbal presentation verified to us that they had achieved our objective. Further, their feedback indicated the course greatly stimulated their interest in the subject matter, and they had some fun along with the learning.