1.
Thomas Viaduct
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The Thomas Viaduct spans the Patapsco River and Patapsco Valley between Relay and Elkridge, Maryland, USA. It was commissioned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, built between July 4,1833, and July 4,1835, and named for Philip E. Thomas, the companys first president. At its completion, the Thomas Viaduct was the largest bridge in the United States and it remains the worlds oldest multiple arched stone railroad bridge. In 1964, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark, the viaduct is now owned and operated by CSX Transportation and still in use today, making it one of the oldest railroad bridges still in service. This Roman-arch stone bridge is divided into eight spans and it was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, II, then B&Os assistant engineer and later its chief engineer. The main design problem to overcome was that of constructing such a bridge on a curve. The design called for several variations in span and pier widths between the sides of the structure. This problem was solved by having the lateral pier faces laid out on radial lines, the viaduct was built by John McCartney of Ohio, who received the contract after completing the Patterson Viaduct. Caspar Wever, the chief of construction, supervised the work. The span of the viaduct is 612 feet long, the arches are roughly 58 feet in span. The width at the top of the spandrel wall copings is 26 feet 4 inches, the bridge is constructed using a rough-dressed Maryland granite ashlar from Patapsco River quarries, known as Woodstock granite. A wooden-floored walkway built for pedestrian and railway use is four feet wide and supported by cast iron brackets. The viaduct contains 24,476 cubic yards of masonry and cost $142,236.51, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States. Construction began on July 4,1828, with the route following the Patapsco River to Ellicotts Mills In 1835 the Washington Branch was constructed. This new line branched at Relay, the site of a former post road hotel, the 1830s Relay House served as a hotel until it was replaced by the $50,078.41 Viaduct Hotel in 1872. The Gothic combination railroad station and hotel operated until 1938 and was torn down in 1950, on one side the monument reads, The Thomas Viaduct, Commenced July 4,1833 Finished, July 4,1835. He also celebrated the work by having his men kneel on the deck of the viaduct while mock baptizing them with a pint of whiskey. Until after the American Civil War, the B&O was the railroad into Washington
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Maryland
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The states largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, the state is named after Henrietta Maria of France, the wife of Charles I of England. George Calvert was the first Lord of Baltimore and the first English proprietor of the colonial grant. Maryland was the state to ratify the United States Constitution. Maryland is one of the smallest U. S. states in terms of area, as well as one of the most densely populated, Maryland has an area of 12,406.68 square miles and is comparable in overall area with Belgium. It is the 42nd largest and 9th smallest state and is closest in size to the state of Hawaii, the next largest state, its neighbor West Virginia, is almost twice the size of Maryland. Maryland possesses a variety of topography within its borders, contributing to its nickname America in Miniature. The mid-portion of this border is interrupted by Washington, D. C. which sits on land that was part of Montgomery and Prince Georges counties and including the town of Georgetown. This land was ceded to the United States Federal Government in 1790 to form the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state and the counties east of the bay are known collectively as the Eastern Shore. Close to the town of Hancock, in western Maryland, about two-thirds of the way across the state. This geographical curiosity makes Maryland the narrowest state, bordered by the Mason–Dixon line to the north, portions of Maryland are included in various official and unofficial geographic regions. Much of the Baltimore–Washington corridor lies just south of the Piedmont in the Coastal Plain, earthquakes in Maryland are infrequent and small due to the states distance from seismic/earthquake zones. The M5.8 Virginia earthquake in 2011 was felt moderately throughout Maryland, buildings in the state are not well-designed for earthquakes and can suffer damage easily. The lack of any glacial history accounts for the scarcity of Marylands natural lakes, laurel Oxbow Lake is an over one-hundred-year-old 55-acre natural lake two miles north of Maryland City and adjacent to Russett. Chews Lake is a natural lake two miles south-southeast of Upper Marlboro. There are numerous lakes, the largest of them being the Deep Creek Lake. Maryland has shale formations containing natural gas, where fracking is theoretically possible, as is typical of states on the East Coast, Marylands plant life is abundant and healthy. Middle Atlantic coastal forests, typical of the southeastern Atlantic coastal plain, grow around Chesapeake Bay, moving west, a mixture of Northeastern coastal forests and Southeastern mixed forests cover the central part of the state
4.
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
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Anne Arundel County /ˌænəˈrʌndəl/ is a county located in the U. S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, its population was 537,656 and its county seat is Annapolis, which is also the capital of the state. The County was named for Lady Ann Arundell, the daughter of Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour, members of the ancient family of Arundells in Cornwall, England. She married Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, and the first Lord Proprietor of the colony, Province of Maryland, in an arranged marriage contract in 1627 or 1628. Anne Arundel County was originally part of St. Marys County in the portion of the Province of Maryland which had first been settled by the arriving settlers in 1634. In 1650, the year after Lady Ann Arundells death, the County separated from St. Marys and erected into its own jurisdiction, between 1654 and 1658, the County was known as Providence by many of its early settlers. The Commonwealth forces under William Fuller were victorious, prior to the move, Annapolis was known as Providence. During the American Revolutionary War, citizens of Anne Arundel County supported the Continental Army by providing troops for three regiments, the 3rd Maryland Regiment, the 4th Maryland Regiment, and the 6th Maryland Regiment were recruited in the county. During the War of 1812, the one of the six heavy frigates of the recently reestablished United States Navy. Constitution sailed from Annapolis prior to its victorious engagement with the H. M. S, guerriere of the British Royal Navy. This was the first regular passenger service in the United States. In 1831, land west of the railroad was considered the Howard District of Anne Arundel County, in 1851, The Howard District was broken off to form Howard County, now the 21st county in Maryland. The County has a number of properties on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 588 square miles, of which 415 square miles is land and 173 square miles is water. Anne Arundel County is located to the south of the city of Baltimore, most of the Countys borders are defined by water. The largest of these include, the Magothy River, Severn River, South River. Further south, the upper Patuxent River forms the border of Anne Arundel with Prince Georges County to the west, deep Run forms part of the northwestern border with Howard County, and Lyons Creek forms part of the southern border with Calvert County. Anne Arundel County originally included all of the land between the Patuxent River and the Patapsco River upstream to their headwaters on Parrs Ridge. The northwestern section of this long tract later became Howard County, as a result, Anne Arundel County lies almost entirely within the Atlantic Coastal Plain while Howard County is almost entirely within the Piedmont province
5.
Baltimore County, Maryland
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Baltimore County is a county in the U. S. state of Maryland. Since 1854, the county seat has been in Towson, Baltimore County is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area and Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. The county is part of the Northeast Megalopolis stretching from Boston to Washington. As of 2009, the countys workforce totalled 410,100, with 25% employed in the fields of education, health, and human services, 10% in retailing, and less than 1% in agriculture. The county is home to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Towson University, Goucher College, in 1674, a proclamation of the Proprietor, established the then extensive boundary lines for old Baltimore County. In 1674, a portion of northeastern Baltimore County, as well as a portion of northwestern Kent County, was split off to create Cecil County. In 1748, a portion of western Baltimore County, as well as a portion of Prince Georges County to the south, were split off to create Frederick County, in 1773, Harford County to the east was split off from Baltimore County. In 1837, another part of western Baltimore County was combined with a part of eastern Frederick County to create Carroll County, the Baltimore County court sessions had been held in private residences before 1674, with a small amount of documentary evidence. Since 1712, the seat had been located in old Joppa, later by 1724, the Assembly authorized Thomas Tolley, Capt. John Taylor, Daniel Scott, Lancelot Todd and John Stokes to purchase 20 acres from a tract named Taylors Choice after John Taylor who also held other parcels in the area. The Ordinance directed that the land be divided into 40 lots with streets and alleys to accompany the courthouse and jail which had already been previously erected. By 1750 there were some 50 houses, a church, courthouse,3 stone warehouses, inns, taverns, stores and these events have been commemorated ever since by Defenders Day on September 12th. A second city-county courthouse constructed in 1805–1809 was moved to the side of the Square at North Calvert. The first county seat of Baltimore County was known today as Old Baltimore and it was located on the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County. In 1674, the General Assembly passed An Act for erecting a Court-house, the site of the court house and jail for Baltimore County was evidently Old Baltimore near the Bush River. In 1683, the General Assembly passed An Act for Advancement of Trade to establish towns, ports, one of the towns established by the act in Baltimore County was on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House. The court house on the Bush River referenced in the 1683 Act was in all likelihood the one created by the 1674 Act, Old Baltimore was in existence as early as 1674, but we dont know what if anything happened on the site prior to that year. The exact location of Old Baltimore was lost for years and it was certain that the location was somewhere on the site of the present-day Aberdeen Proving Grounds, a U. S. Army weapons testing facility
6.
Carroll County, Maryland
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Carroll County is a county located in the U. S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 167,134, Carroll County is included in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area. While predominantly rural, the county has become increasingly suburban in recent years, Carroll County was created in 1837 from parts of Baltimore and Frederick Counties, see Hundred. It was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the American Declaration of Independence, during the American Civil War, the population of Carroll County was sharply divided between supporters of the Union and the Confederacy. In 1863, there were significant troop movements through the county as part of the Gettysburg campaign. E. B, in 2013 the Carroll County Board of Commissioners voted to make English the official language of the county. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 453 square miles. Topographically, Carroll County is located within the Piedmont Plateau region, with characteristic upland terrain of rolling hills, the most prominent relief is Parrs Ridge, which bisects the county from southwest to northeast. The highest point is in the part of the county on Dug Hill along Deep Run Road. Carroll County is bordered on the north by the Mason–Dixon line with Pennsylvania, Carroll County is bordered on the west by Frederick County, across the Monocacy River and Sams Creek. Other major streams in the county include Big Pipe Creek, Little Pipe Creek, and Double Pipe Creek, Bear Branch, the Piney Run Reservoir is in the southern part of the county. Three railroad lines cross Carroll County, the old Baltimore and Ohio Old Main Line crosses the southern part of the county from east to west, with former stations in Sykesville and Mount Airy. The original Western Maryland Railway main line runs southeast to northwest through Carrollton, Westminster, New Windsor. The old Baltimore and Hanover Railroad runs further to the east through Hampstead, Millers, two of these railroad lines are now operated by CSX Transportation, the former WM main line is now operated by Maryland Midland Railway. York County, Pennsylvania Baltimore County Howard County Frederick County Adams County, the population density was 336 people per square mile. There were 54,260 housing units at a density of 121 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 95. 69% White,2. 28% Black or African American,0. 22% Native American,0. 75% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,0. 31% from other races, and 0. 73% from two or more races. 0. 99% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,30. 5% were of German,14. 0% Irish,11. 1% United States or American,10. 7% English and 7. 3% Italian ancestry. 17. 50% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.81 and the average family size was 3.18
7.
Howard County, Maryland
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Howard County is a county located in the central part of the U. S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 287,085 and its county seat is Ellicott City. Howard County is included in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metropolitan Statistical Area, however, recent development in the south of the county has led to some realignment towards the Washington, D. C. media and employment markets. The county is home to Columbia, a planned community of approximately 100,000 founded by developer James Rouse in 1967. Howard County is frequently cited for its affluence, quality of life, with an estimated median household income of $108,844 in 2012, Howard County had the third-highest median household income of any U. S. county in 2013. The main population center of Columbia/Ellicott City was named second among Money magazines 2010 survey of Americas Best Places to Live, Howard Countys schools frequently rank first in Maryland as measured by standardized test scores and graduation rates. In 2010, the center of population of Maryland was located in the Howard County town of Jessup and he was the fifth governor of Maryland from 1788 to 1791. The lands of prehistoric Howard County were populated by Native Americans, the Maryland Historical Trust has documented sites along the Patapsco, Patuxent, Middle and Little Patuxent River valleys. In 1652, the Susquehannock tribes signed a treaty with Maryland. In 1800, the center of U. S. population as calculated by the US Census Bureau was found in what is now Howard County. In 1838, Dr. William Watkins of Richland Manor proposed the Howard District of Anne Arundel County, after several adjournments, the area of western Anne Arundel County was designated the Howard District in 1839. The district had the status as a county except that it was not separately represented in the Maryland General Assembly. In 1841, the county built its first courthouse in Ellicott City, at the January 1851 constitutional convention, Thomas Beale Dorsey submitted a petition led by James Sykes. A committee was formed with Dorsey, Bowie, Smith, Harbine, after several postponements, the district was erected officially as Howard County on March 7,1851. The plantations of modern Howard County used slave labor as early as 1690, at the time of the Underground Railroad, some Howard County residents assisted slaves who were escaping to freedom. This was particularly risky, as many prominent plantation families were Confederate sympathizers during the Civil War, Maryland was exempt from the Emancipation Proclamation, later abolishing slavery in the update of the Maryland Constitution in November 1864. On May 1,1883 Howard County joined Anne Arundel and Hardford County in liquor prohibition, by 1899, Howard County contained 400 miles of dirt and 48 miles of stone roads, including three paid turnpikes maintained by 118 men. Most traffic consisted of loads delivered to rail crossings, in 1909, County Commissioners Hess, Werner and ONeil were charged with malfeasance regarding contract bids
8.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
9.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
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The Departments principal functions are, Managing over 461,000 acres of public lands Protecting over 17,000 miles of waterways Lead agency for restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and coastal bays. DNR does not issue or enforce environmental permits under the federal Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and those functions are the responsibility of the Maryland Department of the Environment. DNR was established in 1969 as part of a reorganization of the Maryland executive branch initiated by Governor Marvin Mandel, DNR assumed the responsibilities formerly held by the Maryland Board of Natural Resources, and consolidated the agencys authority under a single department secretary. The first DNR secretary was former Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes, other notable DNR secretaries have included James Coulter and Torrey C. Brown. The department is headquartered in the Tawes State Office building at 580 Taylor Avenue in Annapolis, Natural Resources Secretary Mark J. Belton was appointed in 2015. The Deputy Secretary is Joanne Throwe, Land Resources includes the Park Service, Forest Service, Wildlife and Heritage Service, Land Acquisition and Planning, Engineering and Construction, and the Maryland Environmental Trust. The mission of the Maryland Park Service is to manage the natural, cultural, historical, the Service manages 66 state parks. Services include camping, biking, boating and fishing, hiking, outdoor programs, the Service consists of both civilian and law enforcement rangers. DNR closely regulates wildlife, tracking diseases and populations, during the previous hunting season there was a lone reported case of a hunter legally taking a deer only to find out later that the deer tagged was infected with Chronic Wasting Disease, CWD. CWD is a disease that effect deer elk and moose, where the infected have symptoms such as loss of body condition, behavioral abnormalities. People are warned to avoid contact with the brain, spinal cord, to help control this problem each year the MD-DNR takes samples from the deer harvested to test for any signs of CWD. The main focus is in the western Maryland counties due to the reports of CWD in West Virginia and Virginia, the DNR is also responsible for regulating the 3 million acres of wooded land in Maryland. There are over 160 species of trees that create these millions of acres of forest. This abundant acreage makes the forest industry one of the biggest businesses in the state, in the two westernmost counties, Garrett and Allegany, forestry is the largest employer. Over the years there have been contributing factors that have diminished some of the wooded areas around the state. Since the early 1980s, almost half a million acres have been infested with gypsy moths that destroyed forests, there are also the Southern Pine bark beetles that have caused excessive damage to the pine trees on the Eastern Shore. Another reason for damage to the forestry is the fires that occur every year. The spring and the fall are the times for fires because of the climate changes
Geographic data related to Patapsco Valley State Park at OpenStreetMap
Geographic data related to