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  • A great blue heron stands on the edge of the C&O Canal at dusk. As seen from along the towpath at Great Falls in Potomac, MD. <br />
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The C&O Canal was created in the 1830's in an effort to connect the Ohio River Valley frontier with the East Coast. However, trains were beginning to come onto the scene around the time of construction. Beginning with the B&O Railroad based out of Baltimore, trains could carry much larger cargos than canal boats, travel faster and be constructed far easier than digging and dredging canals. Construction was halted at Cumberland Maryland, 100 miles west of Washington, as the railroad arrived at Pittsburgh, making the canals original purposes obsolete. Nonetheless, the canal was widely used for transportation of raw materials such as coal from mines in West Virginia. The canal fell into disuse by the 20th century, and the National Parks Service purchased the canal in the 1930's.
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  • Located 14 miles upstream from DC, Great Falls lies along the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line where the Piedmont Plateau meets the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The series of cascades descend a total of 76 feet over less than a mile, making it the steepest fall line rapids of any river on the Eastern Seaboard. The falls themselves were created over thousands of years dating from the last ice age when the sea level dropped, resulting in the Potomac carving deep into the surrounding rock as it made its way to the Chesapeake.
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  • Located 14 miles upstream from DC, Great Falls lies along the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line where the Piedmont Plateau meets the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The series of cascades descend a total of 76 feet over less than a mile, making it the steepest fall line rapids of any river on the Eastern Seaboard. The falls themselves were created over thousands of years dating from the last ice age when the sea level dropped, resulting in the Potomac carving deep into the surrounding rock as it made its way to the Chesapeake.
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  • The C&O Canal (short for Chesapeake and Ohio) is seen at dusk along the towpath at Great Falls in Potomac, MD. <br />
<br />
The C&O Canal was created in the 1830's in an effort to connect the Ohio River Valley frontier with the East Coast. However, trains were beginning to come onto the scene around the time of construction. Beginning with the B&O Railroad based out of Baltimore, trains could carry much larger cargos than canal boats, travel faster and be constructed far easier than digging and dredging canals. Construction was halted at Cumberland Maryland, 100 miles west of Washington, as the railroad arrived at Pittsburgh, making the canals original purposes obsolete. Nonetheless, the canal was widely used for transportation of raw materials such as coal from mines in West Virginia. The canal fell into disuse by the 20th century, and the National Parks Service purchased the canal in the 1930's.
    maryland003.JPG
  • The mouth of the Potomac river fades into the distance at first light at Point Lookout State Park, MD. Where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake Bay.
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  • Lightning flashes over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
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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.
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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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  • People line the Potomac River to watch the annual fireworks display over the national mall on July 4th, 2016. While low clouds obscured a large portion of the display, those close to their launch point still enjoyed quite a show.
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  • A full moon overhead illuminates the Potomac River and city of Alexandria, VA. As seen from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
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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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  • A long exposure turns the churning waters where the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay meet seemingly to glass at the tip of Point Lookout State Park in St. Mary's County, MD.
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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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  • Snowpack covers the landscape of Great Falls on the Maryland side of Great Falls Park.
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  • The sun breaks through the clouds as it sets on the horizon after a bout of stormy weather, casting a group of walkers in shadow along the Georgetown Waterfront. Washington, D.C.
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  • Crew members of the Woodrow Wilson High School Novice rowing team dock their boat at the end of practice at the Thompson Boat Center in Northwest Washington.
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  • Lightning flashes across the sky over the Francis Scott Key Bridge. As seen from the overlook of the former Aqueduct Bridge. Washington, D.C.
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  • Night over Waterfront Park. Alexandria, VA
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  • At the foot of the George Washington Monument C.1826 at the summit of South Mountain, Maryland. It was here that the Army of the Potomac broke through the rearguard of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia after discovering special order 191, Robert E. Lee's battle plans for the Invasion of the North inside a cigar box near a farm outside of Frederick. The top secret plans described in detail how the already outnumbered confederate army had been divided into 5 corps and spread out. Lee himself quickly learned via confederate spies in Washington that his plans had been discovered, <br />
and immediately cancelled the planned invasion. Lee then ordered his divided army to regroup outside the nearby town of Sharpsburg, where the Confederate army would cross the Potomac River back to the safety Virginia. But Lee wasn't going to abandon everything after coming this far with nothing to show for it. Lee ordered his rebel army to make a stand against the oncoming army of the Potomac on the banks of a nearby creek called Antietam.
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  • At the foot of the George Washington Monument C.1826 at the summit of South Mountain, Maryland. It was here that the Army of the Potomac broke through the rearguard of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia after discovering special order 191, Robert E. Lee's battle plans for the Invasion of the North inside a cigar box near a farm outside of Frederick. The top secret plans described in detail how the already outnumbered army had been divided into 5 corps and spread out. Lee himself quickly learned through spies in Washington that his plans had been discovered, <br />
and immediately cancelled the planned invasion. Lee then ordered his divided army to regroup outside the nearby town of Sharpsburg, where the Confederate army would cross the Potomac River back to the safety Virginia. Unwilling to abandon his army’s first invasion of the North with nothing to show for it, Lee ordered his men to make a stand against the oncoming Army of the Potomac along the banks of Antietam Creek.
    maryland020.JPG
  • 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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  • A boat is cast in shadow as it passes beneath the Arlington Memorial Bridge in the early morning hours on the Potomac River in Washington, DC.
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Craig Hudson Photography

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