History
On the 1612 John Smith map, it was called the Bolus River. It has never been a major path of commerce since it is not navigable further upstream than Elkridge. However, the Patapsco valley was used as the route of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's original main line west constructed from 1829 onwards, and this route remains, though much altered. Many old railroad bridges lie along the valley, most notably the Thomas Viaduct and the ruins of the Patterson Viaduct. Flour mills and a hydropower dam were formerly powered by the river.
The valley is prone to flooding, though at long intervals. The most recent severe flood occurred in 1972 as a result of rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes, in which Ellicott City and the Old Main Line sustained serious damage.
The Patapsco River featured prominently in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. This is where Francis Scott Key, while aboard a British ship, wrote a poem which would later become the national anthem of the United States, "The Star-Spangled Banner". Today, a red, white, and blue buoy marks the spot where the HMS Tonnant was anchored.
Read more about this topic: Patapsco River
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)