Patapsco River

The Key Bridge was a major thoroughfare for not only car drivers, but it was a major thoroughfare for the trucking industry, which is now, and not just for Maryland, for the East Coast.

It still lies at the bottom of the Patapsco River, however many years later.

The point

is, from day one, the governor of Maryland, oh, and by Terrell, somebody, air quotes, gave the governor of Maryland more than $9 million.

Oh, God.

I actually ran at Patapsco.

Not Patapsco.

Sorry.

Susquehanna.

I think I just got an email from them about their race.

Yeah.

Oh, Susquehanna or Patapsco? Yeah.

So the thing that really bothered me, though, is Baltimore doesn't have canals.

It's on a tidal estuary with a tidal river, the Patapsco, that feeds into it.

There is no reason they can't just dump them in a river immediately.

There's so many rivers.

You just dump them in a river.

And I was trying to think, like, where would this facility be? There's an NSA facility in Anne Arundel County in Fort Meade.

So you could drive north and you pass right over the Patapsco as you go back into the city.

And like, I could understand.

Mm-hmm.

So not only does it have that bridge, but it also, um, the Port of Baltimore actually sails up a Chesapeake Bay contributory called, um, the Patapsco River, right? So at best, highest tide, it's a tidal river, but at best it's only 50 feet deep.

Mm-hmm.

So again, you can't get a big ship up, you know, and it has -- and it's another reason why a lot of Carnival itineraries from Baltimore have to leave destinations like Celebration Key and stuff like that early, like 1:00 in the afternoon or whatever.

I anchored right out there.

uh friday night right at dusk like i was coming through the markers here as it was getting to be dusk and i'm like looking around i'm like i literally anchored like 20 feet from the channel you know and i'm like okay i'm here and then the next morning i had problems with my auto helmet i was out here in this space and trying to like do figure eights for like a half an hour trying to get it to reset and it wasn't working so then i continued out and went down through the cut But then when I got to the edge of the Patapsco going into Baltimore, I didn't realize it was another nine miles.

It is.

It's just evening.

The Maryland Transportation Authority, MDTA, opened bidding on August 25th, for the demolition and miscellaneous marine work contract, the second of four procurements planned for rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The scope covers removal of two remaining steel girder units over the Patapsco River, partial demolition of eight marine piers, full demolition of two land piers, and clean out of 96-inch steel pipe piles from the original structure.

MDTA expects to award the work through sealed competitive bidding, with construction starting as early as fall 2026, at an anticipated cost of $50 million to $100 million, the smallest of the four planned contracts.

MDTA Executive Director Bruce Gartner has said the demolition work is not holding up construction already underway elsewhere on the site, but that clearing the remaining structures is still necessary and is proceeding on a track parallel to the agency's other procurements.

England, meanwhile, was busy colonizing and empire building.

And Maryland represented opportunity because back in 1605, 1608 rather, Captain John Smith is credited with noticing and reporting iron ore on the shores of the Patapsco.

And John Rolfe, who later married Pocahontas, is credited with introducing a profitable strain of tobacco into Maryland.

So Maryland begins with three forces that will matter throughout the story, religious power, land, and production, particularly tobacco production.

a story here.

So once rural

land, the Patapsco River was really the center of Maryland's industrial revolution.

It happened to be right next door to where

A national enterprise was at stake.

The whole city, high and low, the quays bordering the Patapsco, the ships lying in the basins, disgorged a crowd drunk with joy, gin, and whiskey.

Everyone chattered, argued, discussed, disputed, applauded, from the gentleman lounging upon the barroom set with his tumbler of sherry cobbler before him, down to the waterman who got drunk upon his knock-me-down in the dingy taverns of Fell Point.

About 2 a.m., however, the excitement began to subside.