wow you got close to the fort

Fairly close. I was using a zoom lens too. It was really cool to see

Fort Caroll is one fort I'd love to explore. Wish Baltimore had tours of it.

Its sort of a give and take thing for me. Because, while there is no question I'd like to see the lighthouse restored to prevent collapse, I'd rather tour the fort in unrestored stabilized condition, and I know if they did open it up for tours it'd probably be cleaned up and restored to pristine condition. That would also include removal of all the trees and other growth on the island which provide habitat for birds and other animals. Though there is no question I would love to tour the place. It looks like a pretty great place to take pictures in.

yeah its a bird sanctuary, so it will never be restored. If you like forts you should check out Fort Howard

Cool, where is fort howard?

Fort Howard is in maryland. Its a public park with all the battlements still in place. It's located in baltimore County at the end of North Point Road.

It looks really cool. I cant figure out why they abandoned the VA hospital though. It doesnt look like it was in bad shape ten years ago when they moved out.

Because we can't use any old, interesting buildings. I'm sure they had some "good reasons", but primarily they probably want to give lucrative contracts to their business buddies to spend your tax dollars on new construction!

:)

Oh and want to bet the property gets "redeveloped" into condos so the realtors and lawyers and developers can get rich?

Sorta like... Sparrows Point!

Lol, sounds about right. They want to do that with a local fort here unfortunately. Funny enough there's a veterans hospital there too.

I always wonder when they build homes or shopping centers on these industrial sites whatever happened to the people who worked there. They just announced the demolition of a local steel mill here. Supposedly they're going to build an office building in its place. Lol seems like our history is paralleling Baltimore"s. Always really sad to see industry go. I mean just about anyone can work at a steel mill. You need a college education and special skills to work in an office.

Hum, is that by chance City Steel aka Claymont Steel? :/

Yes, that's my problem with these re-developments of industrial sites. Since we no longer have the industry, where are the people who used to work there to go and make enough to buy these new homes and support these new shops.

Or are these new places just for the lawyers, politicians, and lobbyists who got rich off the deal?

Sorry, exiting cynical mode now! :)

Yeah Claymont Steel.

Lol, its fine. I can get pretty cynical myself. I cant see anything for the working class being built there

I feel bad for the guys losing jobs there. There were a couple black guys working on the deck I needed to talk to about equipment. It was 101 F outside that day and they were working a few feet from molten steel. It must have been over 140 degrees where they were. I could barely stand to be there. Sweat was pouring off them, but they weren't bitching, they were working, earning a good living making a useful product. And they were friendly and polite to some guy getting in their way. Now what do those guys do? Where else will they get jobs that pay more than shit?

Heavy industry has its problems, but it was the only way for the average person to make any fair wage.

But jobs are coming back! The economy is picking up!

Yeah, same here. The world needs more blue collar workers, and less lawyers

Yeah I keep hearng that, but not seeing any evidence of it!

*sigh* ya got me all pissed off now :) Not your fault!

Here are a couple pics from Claymont...
http://www.furaffinity.net/search/?q=@keywords+Infurmountable+industry&order-by=date

I'm sorry, man. Thanks for the pictures though. Very cool to see inside it!

Rats. I see from the Wilmington news that Claymont Steel bites the dust :( Will there be any industry left in this country in a few years where someone might find a good paying job, or will we all work at Wart Mal? The burgers will all be flipped by robots, so we won't be doing that!

I have pictures from inside Claymont. Maybe I'll post some.

Battle mints? Yum! :)

Where exactly is this? It'd be a cool day trip

Its in Baltimore in the harbor. Though its actually a man made island which isn't open for tours and only accessable by boat

Oh okay. I've only been to the inner harbor maybe three times >//> Yet I've lived in MD all my life XD

Its actually not in the inner harbor but a little outside it very close to the bridge.

Quite a few years ago Fort Carroll wasn't entirely buried in bird shit, and the beams from the dock onto the island still existed so you could get onto it without dying. I luckily got to go on with a friend and poke around quite a bit. It was fascinating! I *might* even have some photos I could scan, but you'd probably be better off doing a web search. I seem to remember I found some and a written history online not that long ago.

Now Fort Howard... that was much cooler than Fort Carroll before it was opened as a public park! I was there a number of times when it was all unfenced. We explored the bunkers and passageways under and between the gun emplacements; I guess they were the ammo magazines but we didn't find any live shells, lol. You could go into the machine gun towers up top. I don't think anything was sealed, it was just where your nerve and your lights took you! Effing crrrrrreeeeepy! Now unfortunately it's been fence, gated, sealed, and sanitized to keep the idiots out. Last time I visited many things were blocked off and it wasn't very exciting :(

It is cool that they cleaned up the old park nearby, however. Whassit called? Bayshore I think...

Interesting area. Too bad the skyline of Sparrows Point is basically gone now :(

Yeah, Fort Delaware is the same way. Its mostly cleaned up and restored. There are some cool things, like the barracks have been rebuilt. But the main fort just seems like a lot of the same. Its a very cool place, but there's not much left to see after 1 visit. I don't know what it looked like before because it was restored decades ago. I like the way the did Eastern State Penitentiarty in Philly though. Its been stabilized and re-roofed to keep it from decaying anymore, but mostly left as-is on the inside. Only a few areas have been fully restored. And its so massive and has been altered and added onto a lot. So there is a lot to see.

Lol, I'm not from Baltimore, so I wouldn't know of any parks near there. But the name sounds familiar.

Yeah thats a real shame. They pretty much levelled the waterfront here. Most of the old industrial buildings are gone. And the ones that are still there have been heavily altered. Its a pretty boring place to walk now.

If you're interested I'm sure you can find Bayshore Park info on the web. It was a big trolley company amusement park next to Fort Howard. The remains of a picnic pavilion and the powerhouse are there. I knew people who went there when it was a big deal!

Looks interesting. Is that big pier still there?

Yep. In fact I think I saw something about them just repairing it.