ELK RIDGE LANDING

A picture I shot a few minutes ago looking directly overhead...quite a bit different than what would have been seen in this very spot some time back...a place once called Elk Ridge Landing....

Well, thats what it was called over 200 years ago. There was a settlement here before the declaration of independence. And here I am waiting on the sun to rise in what is now called Elkridge, Maryland. If you looked for it on the map you'd probably just consider it a suburb of Baltimore, but it actually has a history all its own.

Interesting place, like always I wish I had time to just kickabout the streets...especially in the older parts of town . Reading the history of it makes it possible to kind of go back in time, the days of dirt roads or cobble stone streets, and watch the tobacco farmer...relieved that the crop has come in, headed towards the landing with his crop, maybe even sense the leariness he might be feeling as he mulls over what his neighbor told him about the way the buyers cut the price back on what they had hoped for. Then as he thinks about the port in England where his crop will be unloaded...a wisp of nostalgia sweeps over him, he remembers working on the docks in England as a young boy, never would he have dreamed he would some day be in this place shipping tobacco there..."my my how the times have changed".

Elk Ridge Landing referred to the shipping docks and concentrations of population alongthe Patapsco River (navigable into the 1800's).
Planters brought their tobacco "hogsheads" (large barrels weighing as much as 900 pounds when filled) to the "Elk Ridge" landing to load them aboard large sea vessels bound for England. The farmer would pack his crop into the hogshead and roll them with the help of mules or oxen to the wharves at the landing.

Second in importance to tobacco at Elk Ridge was the iron industry. When Captain John Smith first ventured up the Chesapeake Bay and the Patapsco River in 1608, he noted the red clay in the hills along the river. The colonial province's assembly passed an act in 1719 to encourage iron manufacturing.

Caleb Dorsey began to mine ore along the Patapsco and was owner of Elk Ridge Furnace established in 1750. He helped establish the port of Elk Ridge to ship his products to England.With this, Elk Ridge Landing became second only to Annapolis among Anne Arundel County seaports in the mid-1700's.

The iron industry declined by the mid-1800's due to an inconsistency in U.S. tariffs and competition abroad. After the iron works closed, the land along Deep Run spawned a grove of willows, which later provided a resource for another industry. The willow canes were harvested and woven into baskets in the early 1900's.

As the population grew along the river and its tributaries -distributing soil to farm and build homes and communities- the rivers began to silt. The river's silt combined with the decline of iron and tobacco shipping, finally closed the port. Elk Ridge Landing became simply -Elkridge.

A few homes in Elkridge remain standing that date back to the 1700s, but most were constructed during the early 1900s on up to today.

The Thomas Viaduct, located over Levering Avenue at the entrance to the Patapsco State Park, is the oldest stone curved bridge in the world. Built in 1833, its architect was Benjamin Latrobe, Jr. The B&O first used horse-drawn coaches in relays, hence Relay Station was added. The Viaduct also carried the Tom Thumb and the first telegraph message from Washington, D.C. stating: "what has God wrought?" was wired across.

(For more history and references click on this Wikipedia link )