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  • History is not just around you in Washington, you're most likely standing or driving on it as well. Take the bridge connecting Pennsylvania Avenue to Georgetown for example. This bridge doesn’t just carry traffic; it’s been carrying the very water Washingtonians drink and shower with since the Civil War. <br />
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Until the 1850’s, Pennsylvania avenue ended at Rock Creek, the only bridge into Georgetown being the M Street bridge. More importantly however, Georgetown and Washington had no clean or dependable water supply, relying instead on a mishmash of natural springs throughout the area that were often disease-ridden. After a fire in the Library of Congress destroyed over 30,000 books, funding was approved by Congress to build an effective water delivery system for the growing Capital. The project was overseen by Montgomery Meigs, who devised a massive, ambitious aqueduct system spanning from Great Falls to the Washington Navy Yard. Using open conduits, tunnels and bridges to transport the water via gravity through three separate reservoirs, the aqueduct was one of the first major water projects in the United States and was celebrated as an engineering marvel upon its completion after eight years of construction. The Pennsylvania avenue bridge is just one part of that elaborate water system, and was celebrated in its own right, with the aqueduct pipes simultaneously serving as the main support for the bridge itself. The superstructure of the old bridge was replaced with a stone facade as part of an expansion plan in 1916. However, the original pipes remain after 150 years; hidden behind the stone and underneath our tires.
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  • Located in the Marina District adjacent to Crissy Field, the Palace of Fine Arts is the only remnant of the magnificent World’s Fair of 1915; The Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The World’s Fair was a crowning achievement for the city of San Francisco, whose citizens had succeeded in almost completely rebuilding their city not even 10 years after the great earthquake of 1906 that turned over 75 percent of the city to rubble and ash. <br />
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Built of cheap, temporary  materials for the sole purpose of the World’s Fair, the palace was spared demolition after the fair and was in partial ruin by the 1960’s. Conservation efforts succeeded in raising the necessary funds to partially demolish and rebuild the landmark to make it a permanent feature of the city skyline and culture.
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  • The historic town of Harpers Ferry is illuminated from a full moon above; as seen from the edge of Maryland Heights.<br />
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On the night of October 16th, 1859 a party of 17 armed men led by the militant abolitionist John Brown crossed the Potomac River over the B&O railroad bridge (the piers of which can be seen below at left) to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry and its stockpile of 100,000 rifles and muskets. With these weapons, Brown intended to facilitate an armed slave uprising that would spread throughout the entire South. <br />
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While his raid failed, the news of John Brown's attempt was an earthquake that reverberated throughout the entire Union and split the fault line between North and South. denounced as a psychotic terrorist by Southerners, Brown was embraced by many Northern abolitionists as a martyr. This outpouring of support for Brown exasperated Southern suspicions of a yankee-abolitionist plot to subjugate the South under Northern control through emancipation; by force if necessary. Southern states, long fearful of slave revolts, revived the militia system to combat all future "John Browns" laying the foundation for what would become the Confederate Army. <br />
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On the morning of his execution, John Brown handed a note to one of his guards that would become prophetic: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood..." 16 months later, Confederate batteries in Charleston would open fire on Fort Sumter, and the bloody purge would begin.
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  • On the night of October 16th 1859 a party of 17 armed men led by the militant abolitionist John Brown crossed the Potomac River over the B&O railroad bridge to seize the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry and its stockpile of 100,000 rifles and muskets. With these weapons, Brown intended to facilitate an armed slave uprising that would begin in Virginia and move South along the Blue Ridge as word of the revolt spread. The raid was initially successful. Brown's men seized the railroad bridge, rounded up the town's watchmen, cut the telegraph wire and seized the arsenal complex (guarded by a single sentry) without incident. It all went downhill from there. <br />
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Brown's entire plan hinged on the assumption that slaves in the surrounding countryside would flock to him after receiving word of the raid. However, no slaves were made aware of the planned attack, and consequently Brown quickly found himself surrounded in the morning not by eager runaway slaves but by angry townspeople and militia. Volleys were exchanged and hostages taken as Brown and his men retreated into the Arsenal's engine house (known today as John Brown's Fort)  barricading themselves inside. <br />
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Meanwhile, An eastbound B&O train stopped by Brown's men earlier that morning was allowed to continue forward, whose conductor quickly wired a telegram reporting the raid to officials in Baltimore. In a matter of hours, Washington was alerted to the attack. President Buchanan dispatched a detachment of U.S. Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee; future commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, to end the siege and capture John Brown. The Marines arrived in Harper's Ferry the next day. Brown refused to surrender himself in exchange for the lives of his remaining men, and the marines stormed the engine house to take Brown prisoner.
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  • The yellow painted house of the Fort Washington Park visitor center stands in stark contrast with the surrounding snowy landscape in late winter. Fort Washington, MD.
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  • The road leading to the lighthouse of Point Lookout State Park in St. Mary's County, MD. A few hundred yards down this road is the former site of Camp Hoffman, a prisoner of war camp for confederates during the Civil War. Of the some 50,000 rebel soldiers who passed through its gates, approximately 4000 would die of disease and starvation. Consequently, many ghost stories have emanated from Point Lookout, one of which involves this stretch of road. Many prisoners reportedly would fake illness in order to be admitted to the adjacent Hammond Hospital where security was lighter and escape more possible. Prisoners would do this, only to expose themselves to disease in the sick wards and die in the surrounding woods shortly after making their escape. Various motorists coming down this road claim to have witnessed a man in gray tattered clothing sprinting across the road and into the forest, usually seen in the rear view mirror and always in the direction away from the camp sight.
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  • Rays of light from the setting sun illuminate the ruins of Seneca Stone Cutting Mill.<br />
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Located on the banks of Seneca Creek and the Potomac River, Seneca Quarry provided Washington D.C. with a steady supply of sandstone that was both durable and beautiful for itís unique bright-crimson hue. This "Seneca redstone", finely cut and polished in this mill, is everywhere throughout the District, from the Smithsonian Castle, Cabin John Bridge, Arlington National Cemeteryís boundary wall and Luther Place Church in Thomas Circle to numerous houses throughout Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan. <br />
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Beginning in the 1870ís, The millís fortunes declined through financial mismanagement and flood damages. By the turn of the century the quality of the quarried stone had degraded significantly, and the victorian architecture that relied on material such as seneca redstone fell out of popularity. The Seneca quarry shut down operations for good in 1901, leaving the mill to crumble and decay.
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  • The stone piers on the left are what remains of the original B&O Railroad bridge which was burned in 1861 by Confederates before marching South to converge with other rebel units to defend an important railroad junction from Union capture. The battle of Bull Run (as it was called by the Union, Manassas by the Confederacy; Union battles were typically named after rivers and tributaries, whereas Confederates named them after nearby towns and railroads) would be the first major battle of the Civil War.
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  • Exploring the shoreline of St. Mary's river near historic St. Mary's City, MD. Founded in 1634, St. Mary's was the first colonial settlement and capital of Maryland.
    maryland012.TIF
  • This structure was once part of the network of buildings that made up the Nike Surface to Air missile site located along Sweeney Ridge along the hills of Pacifica, CA. The nike missile site was only one of an entire network of sites ringing the Bay Area throughout the early stages of the Cold War, intended to strike incoming enemy bombers and later, ballistic missiles.
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  • The rocky shores of Moss Cove at Point Lobos. Carmel, CA. Point Lobos holds a special place in the history of photography. It's fog-enshrouded shores were a subject of photographers such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Minor White.
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  • The Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American History (September 17, 1862) with over 23,000 killed, wounded or missing, began on the grounds surrounding Dunker Church, with Confederate batteries opening fire against a Union assault on Confederate positions surrounding it. The savage back and forth assaults in the cornfield adjacent to the church resulted in over 8000 casualties in a matter of hours.
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  • Among the thousands of commuters who pass daily over D.C.’s Chain Bridge, some may wonder; just where are the chains? <br />
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The chains haven’t been around since the actual chain-suspension bridge from which the name originated was overcome by storms and flooding in 1840, yet the name has stuck to every new bridge built to replace it since. But that is just one piece of Chain Bridge’s rich history. The span over which Chain Bridge is built is one of the oldest crossing routes in the vicinity of the capital. In fact, the wood covered bridge that was built here in 1797 was the very first bridge to span the Potomac River. This cycle of bridges being created and destroyed by the elements continued up to the Civil War, when the sixth chain bridge (a crossbeam truss design with no chains) played a vital role in the supply and movement of Union army encampments throughout fairfax county. Because of its close proximity to the capital, the bridge was heavily guarded by sentries and artillery throughout the war. While today’s (eighth and final, so far) chain bridge was built in 1939, it stands on the stone piers of the seventh chain bridge built shortly after the civil war in the early 1870’s.
    chain-bridge-civil-war.JPG
  • Waves of the Pacific Ocean crash against the rocky shores of Headland Cove at Point Lobos. Carmel, CA. Point Lobos holds a special place in the history of photography. It's fog-enshrouded shores were a subject of photographers such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Minor White.
    california023.JPG
  • The sun sets over Antietam National Battlefield outside Sharpsburg, MD. The Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American History (September 17, 1862) resulted in over 23,000 killed, wounded or missing.
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  • View from Hawks Nest Overlook. Near Ansted, West Virginia. The construction of the Hawks Nest tunnel nearby to support the hydroelectric dam below the overlook in the 1930's resulted in one of the worst industrial disasters in the nation's history, with large scale silicosis killing hundreds of the workers who worked to build it.
    west-virginia093.JPG
  • Waves of the Pacific Ocean crash against the rocky shores of Headland Cove at Point Lobos. Carmel, CA. Point Lobos holds a special place in the history of photography. It's fog-enshrouded shores were a subject of photographers such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Minor White.
    california042.JPG
  • Waves of the Pacific Ocean crash against the rocky shores of Headland Cove at Point Lobos. Carmel, CA. Point Lobos holds a special place in the history of photography. It's fog-enshrouded shores were a subject of photographers such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Minor White.
    california041.JPG
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