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1908 Map of Patapsco

Name: 1908 Topographic Map of Patapsco
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1908
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1908

About this map

The city of Baltimore serves as the industrial and transit hub of this early twentieth-century landscape, where the Patapsco River meets the Northwest Harbor. Defenses like Fort McHenry and Fort Carroll guard the coastal approaches, while the hinterlands reveal a region of established educational and social institutions, including St Charles College, the McDonogh School, and Springfield Hospital. The map illustrates a complex network of turnpikes and railroads, such as the Baltimore & Ohio RR and the Maryland & Pennsylvania RR, which facilitated the flow of materials to industrial sites like Ashland Furnace.

Transitioning from the urban grid to the outlying districts, the terrain is defined by the winding paths of the Big Patuxent River and Gunpowder Falls. Small communities like Ellicott City, Towson, and Catonsville are shown at a scale that highlights their proximity to the growing city. This survey captures Maryland's central corridor at a moment when rural crossroads like Wards Chapel and Waugh Chapel still punctuated the landscape alongside early infrastructure like the Maryland Rifle Range.