5 Pathetic Groups That People Think Rule the World

(Cracked) - Oh, look, they made another Dan Brown movie at some point. Angels & Demons deals with the deep dark secret organization, The Illuminati, and their attempts to control the world, which means you're probably going to be hearing a lot about that in the next few months on certain, paranoid websites.
Yes, wide-ranging conspiracy theories aren't limited to pulp novels reenacted by a terrible Tom Hanks haircut. YouTube and Digg comments and countless blogs are full of people ranting about the secret elite who are out to enslave all of us.
They have a lot of reasons for believing the following groups are the guilty parties behind everything wrong with the world, and most of those reasons are very, very retarded. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

Pa Ingalls - Pioneer GeekDad?

(Geekdad) - Somewhere along the line, some folks may have gotten the idea that Little House on the Prairie is “just for girls” and that the plot mostly involves Laura Ingalls running through the tall grass in a calico dress.
But I’m reading the book to my boys right now and there’s a lot more D.I.Y. than dresses. Much of the book is about Pa building the house. Continued

Photo: My great grandparents and their children in front of their second little house on the prairie, they'd build one more (which is still standing in New Mexico), after this one.

Green Ben: Benjamin Franklin and Ecosystems

(Historynet) - Long overlooked correspondence between Franklin and Priestley gives us front row seats to a remarkable historical drama: two great minds grappling with the first stirrings of a genuinely new way of thinking about life on earth. Priestley’s experiments revealed that the air we breathe is not some unalienable physical phenomenon, like gravity or magnetism, but is rather something that has been specifically manufactured by plants. In turn, Franklin recognized that the manufacture of breathable air is itself part of a vast, interconnected system that links animals, plants and invisible gases. And the choices we make as humans—destroying trees that grow near houses, for instance—can have a dangerous impact on that flow, if the core participants in the system aren’t properly appreciated and protected. In discovering how Mother Nature had invented our atmosphere, Franklin and Priestley were inventing something just as profound: the ecosystems view of the world. Continued

A Ham Radio Weekend for Talking to the Moon

(NYTimes) - On Saturday, amateur radio buffs or “hams,” as they call themselves, will hold a global bounce-fest, using as many giant parabolic antenna radio telescopes as they can borrow around the world.
Not that one needs an excuse to hold a moon-bounce, but this one is being held as a kind of advance celebration of the 40th anniversary next month of the Apollo 11 mission. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

Middle River gets a new trail along water

(Baltimore Sun) - ... Neighbors lauded the blacktop trail, built with $1 million in county and state money, as only the beginning of a series of pathways that will eventually connect downtown Essex north to Marshy Point Creek. The path begins in the 7.4-acre Hawthorne Park, winds through the neighborhood to Darkhead Creek Park and ends at Hawthorne Elementary School. Continued

Was Custer Outgunned at Little Bighorn?

(Wired) - Tactical blunders and faulty intelligence work contributed heavily to one of the worst defeats ever sustained by the U.S. Army during its protracted campaign to subjugate the Plains Indians, but technology may have played a role, too. Simply put, the Indians may have come to the battlefield in eastern Montana better equipped to fight than the 7th Cavalry troopers. Odd, considering the mercurial brevet Maj. Gen. Custer was leading the spear tip of a force ordered to compel the rebellious Indians to return to their reservations, or else annihilate them. Continued

Photo: Gatling Gun, U.S. Army Ordnance Museum Aberdeen, Maryland. Canon EOS 5D

Bel Air’s mill to be gone in 60 days; Historic building being razed

(Ægis) - The 120-year-old mill on Bel Air’s Main Street will soon be just a memory.
Constructed in 1886 and at one time producing 100 barrels of flour per day, the four-story building is now being demolished after Henry Holloway, owner of The Mill of Bel Air, stopped using it last year. Continued

Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball (And The Crappy Stuff Built In Their Place)

(Infrastructurist) - ... But the sad saga of Penn was by no means an isolated incident. Almost like a rite of passage, cities across the country embraced the era of Interstates, Big Macs, and suburban sprawl by tearing down their train depots. (Frequently, they just did the Joni Mitchell thing and put up a parking lot.) But time and experience are showing that train stations are vital organs in a healthy city, and removing them deadens the entire organism. The lesson is especially stark at the moment, as cities around the country face the challenge of rebuilding the infrastructure for regional high speed rail networks. Continued

Photo: Abernathy Kids

Library of Congress

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap … Ding!

(Wired) June 23, 1868: U.S. Patent No. 79,265 is issued for a type-writing machine. Surely, we have now reached the pinnacle of human communication.
Christopher Latham Sholes’ machine was not the first typewriter. It wasn’t even the first typewriter to receive a patent. But it was the first typewriter to have actual practical value for the individual, so it became the first machine to be mass-produced. Continued

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: Gettysburg Reunion 1913

Library of Congress

Weegee speaks on an old LP

(boingboing) - Artist Laura Levine was recently picking through 15,000 LPs she purchased for her Phoenicia, New York antique shop The Mystery Spot. She came across this treasure, Famous Photographers Tell How. It features advice from Henri-Carter Bresson, Bert Stern, Tana Hoban, Arhur Rothstein, and, my fave, incredible 1940s crime photographer Weegee, of Naked City (1945) fame. Levine and Ted Barron kindly posted select MP3s from the LP at the Boogie Woogie Flu blog. Continued

Kodak’s axing Kodachrome

(MSNBC) - ... The Eastman Kodak Co. announced Monday it’s retiring its most senior film because of declining customer demand in an increasingly digital age. Continued

Photo: Kodachrome slide "Action in the Po Valley" by C. M. Molenaar (Library of Congress).

Live-in curators fix up historic, often run-down woodland houses

(Baltimore Sun) - ... She is among 43 resident curators in an unusual program run by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in partnership with the Maryland Historical Trust. It is aimed at saving historic buildings the DNR acquired over the years as it purchased or accepted parklands that had houses, corn cribs and cabins on them. Continued

Photo: Toll house at Susquehanna State Park

Rainy Saturday Doesn’t Dampen Program at One Room Schoolhouse in Worton Point

(RoDP) - Although a series of thunderstorms brought heavy rain to Kent County this Saturday morning, the downpours didn’t stop a great day from taking place at the African American Schoolhouse Museum at Worton Point, MD. Continued

Related: Slideshow of the days festivities

Photo courtesy of Reflections on Delmarva’s Past

Smithsonian to open Earl Shaffer exhibition

(York Daily Record) - The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., will open a new exhibition on York County native Earl Shaffer next month.
The exhibition, titled, "Earl Shaffer and the Appalachian Trail," will be featured in the Albert H. Small Documents Gallery, starting on July 10. It will focus on the fulfillment of Shaffer's childhood goal, to hike the Appalachian Trail, which stretches through 14 states from Georgia to Maine.
Featured items include Shaffer's trail diary from his pioneering 1948 hike, photographs he took along the trail, the maps he used and the boots he wore. Continued

Tom Dula

(Wikipedia) - Thomas C. Dula (June 22, 1845 – May 1, 1868) was a former Confederate soldier, who was tried, convicted, and hanged for the murder of his fiancée, Laura Foster. The trial and hanging received national publicity from newspapers such as The New York Times, thus turning Dula's story into a folk legend. While the murder happened in Wilkes County, North Carolina, the trial, conviction, and execution took place in Statesville, North Carolina. There was considerable controversy around his conviction and execution. In subsequent years, a folk song was written (entitled “Tom Dooley”, based on the pronunciation in the local dialect), and many oral traditions were passed down, regarding the sensational occurrences surrounding the murder of Foster, and Dula's subsequent execution. Continued

Photo: NCmarkers.com

A Literary Legend Fights for a Local Library

“I don’t believe in colleges and universities,” Ray Bradbury, 88, said. “I believe in libraries.” Continued

Potential farm deal draws mixed reaction: Back River site draws interest as parkland despite poor rating

(Baltimore Sun) - State and local officials are looking to buy a 190-acre waterfront farm in eastern Baltimore County from a developer, even though the partly wooded spread on Back River scored poorly on a rating system the state uses to rank potential purchases for parkland.
No deal has been reached, and no one would reveal what price has been discussed with developer Mark C. Sapperstein, who says he has spent at least $6 million to buy and improve the land. But county officials, who paid Sapperstein more than the appraised value of another property two years ago, say they would be "very interested" in acquiring Bauer's Farm to preserve it from development and to expand public access to the river and Chesapeake Bay. Continued

Hard Times for New England’s 3-Deckers

(NYTimes) - As foreclosures batter the dense neighborhoods of urban New England, a regional emblem is under siege.
Three-decker homes, which proliferated in cities like Boston; Providence, R.I.; and Worcester, Mass., a century ago and remain fixtures of the landscape, are being foreclosed on at disproportionate rates, left to decay and even razed.
Rows of wood-frame triple-deckers have provided moody backdrops in movies like “Mystic River,” a first glimpse of Boston for people who have landed at Logan International Airport and, for generations, an affordable and reasonably spacious place to live. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

Juneteenth

(Wikipedia) - Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 13 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.

Photo: Slave pen, Alexandria, Virginia (Library of Congress).

First U.S. Woman on Antarctica: Marylander Found Beauty, Hardship, Fame on '40s Expedition

(Washington Post) - Edith "Jackie" Ronne never intended to leave Bethesda. She had gone to Beaumont, Tex., in 1947, to see off her explorer husband as he and a volunteer crew headed to Antarctica to fill in the blanks on the map of the last continent. Continued

Photo: Wikipedia

The China Clipper

(Wikipedia) - The China Clipper (NC14716) was the first of three Martin M-130 four engine flying boats built for Pan American Airways and was used to inaugurate the first commercial Trans-Pacific air service from San Francisco to Manila in November, 1935. Built by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, at a cost of $417,000, it was delivered to Pan Am on October 9, 1935. Continued

Photo: http://www.west.net/~ke6jqp/panam.htm

Frances Scott Fitzgerald Smith

(AWHoF) - Frances Scott Fitzgerald Smith, the only child of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, won recognition in her own right as a writer, political activist, and patron of the arts. Scottie was a reporter by trade. She worked on the staffs of Time, The New Yorker, The Democratic Digest, and The Northern Virginia Sun, where she was chief political writer. She also wrote for both The New York Times and The Washington Post.
... She was active in preserving history as a member of the Maryland Historical Society and the Alabama Historical Society. Continued

Digging into Maryland's Colonial past

(Baltimore Sun) - Parts of Charles County's Zekiah Swamp are every bit as inhospitable as the name suggests, choked with tick-infested woods and boot-sucking wetlands. But as archaeologists are discovering to their delight, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries Zekiah was a growth center for the young Maryland colony. The site of a 1674 courthouse was found last summer. Continued

Photo: Gambrel Roof House, Port Tobacco, Charles County, MD, 1936 (Library of Congress).

Wilkins Coffee Featuring Early Muppets

Do they still make Wilkins Coffee? It was out of Washington D.C. My mom drank it for years and years.

Via boingboing

Hearings begin on Conowingo Dam relicensing

(Ægis) - The first local public meeting on the relicensing of Conowingo Hydroelectric Project drew a handful of people in Darlington Thursday, most with concerns about the environmental impact of the 80-year-old dam and power plant, whose federal license expires in 2014.
... Abrams also asked that Port Deposit's historic properties and all town and county comprehensive plans for the area be considered, asked that an environmental impact statement be conducted in addition to an environmental assessment, and noted that the mailing list for the process is inadequate and only two Maryland elected officials are listed on it. Continued

Later in the article, Mary Ellen Marsh, "general manager of Conowingo and Muddy Run," seems to be shocked, shocked that the folks who live downstream of the dam, mind being flooded out on a semi-regular basis. I imagine she lives upstream of the thing. - Falmanac

Prairie dogs immediately escape from $500k escape-proof habitat

(boingboing) - The Maryland Zoo spent $500,000 to make an escape-proof prairie dog habitat, called Prairie Dog Town. The prairie dogs escaped within 10 minutes of being introduced to their new habitat. Zookeepers caught the escaped prairie dogs with nets. Continued

Photo: Adrian Pingstone

A New Deal: The First 100 Days

(LoC) - June 16, 1933, marked the end of the first hundred days of the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Those one hundred days were a period of frenetic activity.
Following his inauguration on March 4, Roosevelt immediately sought to stem the financial panic that had begun with the stock market crash of 1929 and to restore public confidence. He started by closing the nation's banks on March 6. On June 16, 1933, FDR signed the Banking Act, which separated commercial banking from investment banking and established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. He also signed the Farm Credit Act, the Emergency Railroad Transportation Act, and the National Industrial Recovery Act (which created the Public Works Administration). Continued

Photo: National Park Service

New use for old Towson jail

(Baltimore Sun) - A restoration contractor and a community group have come up with compatible projects that tie together the past and the present at Towson's gateway landmark, an imposing stone structure that was the Baltimore County jail for more than 150 years. The three-story building filled with iron-barred cells and thick concrete walls sits on 4 acres at Towsontown Boulevard and Bosley Avenue. Renovations began last week to convert the building that dates to 1854 into offices, a communal conference room and a restaurant with a spacious patio that will overlook another long-sought project - a community pool. Continued

Photo: Baltimore County Public Library

History Girls

(MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS) - Young women are flocking to significant landmarks from the Warring States period, and college girls are buying up samurai-themed products. Sales of historical books are up, and there have been efforts to revive the publication of paperbacks on warlords. Behind this craze is the surge in "reki-jo" or "history girls." But why now? Continued

Portrait of Katō Kiyomasa (不明/Wikipedia).

Mac McGarry

(Wikipedia) - Maurice J. "Mac" McGarry (born June 15, 1926) is the current host of the television quiz show It's Academic, which airs in Washington, D.C. on the local NBC affiliate WRC-TV. He has been the host of the show since it started airing in 1961.
Mac McGarry joined NBC in 1950 for what was then WNBW located in the Wardman Park Hotel. Continued

Photo: The Joy Boys

Flag Day

(LoC) - On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag. Since 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation establishing a national Flag Day on June 14, Americans have commemorated the adoption of the Stars and Stripes by celebrating June 14 as Flag Day. Prior to 1916, many localities and a few states had been celebrating the day for years. Continued

Photo: The Birth of Old Glory [detail], Percy Moran, artist, copyright 1917 (Library of Congress).

Slideshow: The most expensive suburbs to live in

" ... BusinessWeek worked with data analytics firm OnBoard to identify the suburbs in each state where expenses such as mortgage and utility payments, clothing, food and beverages, property taxes, health care and home prices were the highest. Here are the suburbs that made the list in the 10 most populous states." Continued

{Bad news for embittered Fallston haters - it didn't make the top ten (Maryland ranks 18th in population), or even the top 50. Better luck next time!}

Photo: A typical Fallston mansion.

1789: A Drink is Born

(Wikipedia) - Rev. Elijah Craig (1738/1743 – May 18, 1808) was a pioneering Baptist preacher, educator and capitalist entrepreneur in the state of Kentucky. He has been credited with the invention of bourbon whiskey, although this claim was later disputed by some historians. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

View

Reckord Armory Park a step closer to reality in Bel Air

(Ægis) - Bel Air’s planned Armory Park next to the Reckord Armory on Main Street will move a step closer to reality Monday when the board of town commissioners is expected to award a contract to Frederick Ward Associates to create an entrance and walkway to the armory and its park for a cost of $365,000.
During a work session Tuesday afternoon, Randy Robertson, town public works director, said the work is expected to start right after July 4 and last several months. Continued

Photo Nightening

John Brown pikes command high price

DARGAN, Md. - The spears that John Brown ordered for his abolitionist army were fearsome, primitive things. Nearly seven feet long, the pikes had 10-inch steel blades made for slashing and impaling those who resisted the slave rebellion Brown envisioned. ... One bearing the serial number 846 was sold through Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries in 2007 for $13,000. Continued

I seem to remember somebody selling these out of the back of Civil War Times Illustrated when I was a kid, at a pretty low price too. - Falmanac

Photo: Smithsonian Institution

Hey they're learning for free! - Gettysburg battlefield museum hikes fee to $10.50

(YDR) - Visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center -- once planned as a free facility for the display of Civil War artifacts -- are about to see yet another hike in the facility's admission fee.
On Monday, the price for an adult to explore the museum, see a 22-minute film and view the Cyclorama painting will increase from $7.50 to $10.50. Continued

Are Traditional History Courses Vanishing?

(NYTimes) - To the pessimists evidence that the field of diplomatic history is on the decline is everywhere. Job openings on the nation’s college campuses are scarce, while bread-and-butter courses like the Origins of War and American Foreign Policy are dropping from history department postings. And now, in what seems an almost gratuitous insult, Diplomatic History, the sole journal devoted to the subject, has proposed changing its title.
For many in the field this latest suggestion is emblematic of a broader problem: the shrinking importance not only of diplomatic history but also of traditional specialties like economic, military and constitutional history. Continued

Photo: WPA

Collecting Geeky History, One Signature at a Time

(Geekdad) - As a collector, I am always interested in the collections of others. Almost everyone collects something and there are also unique collections out there waiting to be discovered and brought to light. I’ve met people who collect things as commonplace as stamps, baseball cards, Star Wars swag and so on. Then I’ve met people who collect the odd, like matchbooks from truck stops across the United States, or carburetors from old Fords. Continued

Photo: Ulysses S. Grant autograph (Wikipedia).

Lindbergh Honored

(LoC) - On June 11, 1927, Charles Lindbergh received the first Distinguished Flying Cross ever awarded. Since 1927, aviators honored with this medal have included World War II pilots President George Bush, Senator George McGovern, and astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom who flew one hundred missions during the Korean War.
Lindbergh's nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic on May 20-21, 1927, made aeronautical history. The stunt-flyer-turned-airmail-pilot's flight was underwritten by a group of St. Louis businessmen. Flying his monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh captured the $25,000 prize offered for the first flight between New York and Paris. Continued

Photo: Charles Lindbergh on podium on Washington Monument grounds during his Wash., D.C. reception; Army band in foreground: Lindbergh speaking (LoC)

24 indicted in Four Corners artifact theft probe

SALT LAKE CITY (MSNBC) - Two dozen people were indicted Wednesday after a sweeping undercover investigation into ancient artifacts stolen from public and tribal lands in the Four Corners area.
Federal indictments unsealed Wednesday accuse the people of stealing, receiving or trying to sell American Indian artifacts, including bowls, stone pipes, sandals, arrowheads, jars, pendants and necklaces. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

Ken Singleton

(Wikipedia) - Kenneth Wayne Singleton (born June 10, 1947) is a retired American Major League Baseball outfielder/designated hitter and current television announcer. ... During his ten years in Baltimore, Singleton played the best baseball of his career as the Orioles won two pennants, in 1979 and 1983, and won the 1983 World Series. His batting average of .328 in 1977, good for third in the league, was a career high, and he posted 35 homers and 111 RBIs in 1979, also the best totals of his career in those departments. He retired after the 1984 season. Continued

Photo: Wikipedia

Guantánamo Bay

(LoC) - On June 10, 1898, U.S. Marines landed at Guantánamo Bay. For the next month, American troops fought a land war in Cuba that resulted in the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Western Hemisphere. Cuban rebels had gained the sympathy of the American public while the explosion and sinking of the U.S.S. Maine, widely blamed on the Spanish despite the absence of conclusive evidence, further boosted American nationalistic fervor. Continued

Florence MacBeth

(LoC) - Florence MacBeth was known as the Minnesota Nightingale. In 1947, she married James M. Cain [of Maryland], author of "Mildred Pierce," "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice." According to Cain's biography, the two remained devoted to each other until her death in 1966.

Maryland DNR ready to kill mute swans

(Baltimore Sun) - State officials are about to go after the last of the mute swans - beautiful to some, a menace to others - living in Maryland. In what many believe will be the final word in a long fight, Secretary of Natural Resources John Griffin on Monday accepted the report of a task force on the swans, saying that his staff is "unfortunately compelled" to continue population control efforts on the fewer than 500 birds still living on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Continued

Photo: Wikipedia

Your Final Resting Place Might Not Be Final

(Universal York) - Over the years quite a few cemeteries in York County have been built over, paved over or plowed over. Sometimes the inhabitants have been moved to another cemetery, sometimes not. There have been various laws passed over the years in Pennsylvania regarding burial grounds, but, unfortunately, in my opinion, if the owner of the land wants to remove the cemetery and goes through the proper legal channels it could still be approved by the court. Continued

Photos: Falmanac

Rosey Brown

(Wikipedia) - Roosevelt "Rosey" Brown, Jr. (October 20, 1932 – June 9, 2004) was an American football offensive lineman in the National Football League for the New York Giants from 1953 to 1965.
Brown was drafted by the Giants out of Morgan State University in the 1953 NFL Draft after being noticed by the Giants in the Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper that named him to their 1952 Black All-American team. Continued

Photo: Checkoutmycards.com

The Antiquities Act of 1906

(Wikipedia) - The Antiquities Act of 1906, officially An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities (16 USC 431-433), is an act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906 giving the President of the United States authority to restrict the use of particular public land owned by the federal government by executive order, bypassing Congressional oversight. The Act has been used over a hundred times since its passage. Its use frequently creates significant controversy. Continued

Photo: Pueblo Bonito Chaco Canyon New Mexico (Library of Congress).

36 Hours in Williamsburg, Va.

(NYTimes) - ONCE the preserve of eighth-grade field trips and history re-enactors, Williamsburg, Va., with its restored Colonial District, has become in recent years a much more rounded — and upscale — experience. Local chefs raised on both grits and Asian ginger have adapted traditional Southern cooking and native ingredients to create more exotic combinations. Virginia wineries, once scorned, produce high-quality vintages, while the central district of Williamsburg is known not only for stark Colonial homes but also for a lavish spa and upscale folk-art shops. Of course, if you want to see a staging of Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!” speech, or stick your head in the stocks, that’s still an option. Continued

Photo: Capitol in Williamsburg by Theodor Horydczak (Library of Congress).

Learn about Ma & Pa Railroad on Sundays

(North County News) - Sundays in June are once again devoted to displays about the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad at the Old Line Museum just over the state line in Delta, Pa. The Ma & Pa Railroad exhibit includes photos, drawings, newspaper articles, scale models, personal recollections and memorabilia. It is open from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on June 7, 14, 21 and 28. Continued

Photo: MA&PA train along Pleasantville Road, between Baldwin and Fallston (Warren Olt).

The disaster that may have saved D-Day

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(MSNBC.COM) - Frank Derby, a gunner's mate 3rd class who now lives in Fallston, Md., added: "Our officers made it very clear that we'd be court-martialed if we breathed a word of it. That scared the hell out of all of us." Continued

Also: Sailor recalls the attack that killed 749 Americans during a D-Day practice

Last of its kind, deadly Nazi E-boat rises again

Art Donovan

(Wikipedia) - Arthur "The Bulldog" Donovan, Jr. (born June 5, 1925) is a former American football defensive tackle who played for several National Football League teams, most notably the Baltimore Colts. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968. Continued

Baltimore seeks funds to turn derelict railroad span into trail

(Baltimore Sun) - A decrepit railroad bridge in the shadow of Interstate 95 could find new life as the linchpin of a 5 1/2-mile trail encircling the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River - opening up recreational opportunities along a stretch of Baltimore waterfront that some are calling "the next Inner Harbor."
For now, the century-old CSX swing bridge carries little traffic except the occasional trespasser with a crab pot. But city officials and a prominent developer envision a restored span that would serve runners, bicyclists and folks who simply want to take a stroll along a stretch of shoreline that is being reclaimed from industrial development. Continued

Photo: Wikipedia

Fort Necessity

(LoC) - On June 4, 1754, twenty-two-year-old Colonel George Washington and his small military force were busy constructing Fort Necessity, east of what is known today as Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Washington's men built the fort to protect themselves from French troops intent on ousting the British from the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Washington's troops were surrounded at Fort Necessity, and forced to surrender to the French on July 3, 1754. Continued

Photo: General view of Fort Necessity site, Theodor Horydczak Collection (Library of Congress).