Chapter Nine Chesapeake Metropolis, 1930 to 2000

New World Depression Era World War II Cold War Economic Order 1930 to 1939 1939 to 1945 1947 to 1989 1989 to 2000

1950- 1965- 1930 1933 1939 1940 1941 1945 1947 1953 1952 1973 1973 1983 1989 1990 2000 ||||||||||||||| Regional | WWII | America WWII | Korean | Vietnam | U.S. EPA | Regional | population | begins in | enters ends | War | War | establishes | population | reaches | Europe | WW II || |Chesapeake | reaches | 5.0 million || Cold War Chesapeake | Bay Program | 10.5million | Franklin | begins Bay Bridge ||| Delano Regional opens Chesapeake Soviet Union Regional Roosevelt population Bay Bridge- collapses population first elected nears Tunnel ending reaches president 5.5 million opens Cold War 12.0 million

AN ECOLOGY OF PEOPLE SIGNIFICANT EVENTS AND PLACE ▫ 1930–regional ▫ 1948 to 1950–Alger ▫ 1968–riots in population reaches Hiss spy case Washington, Ⅺ PEOPLE 5 million ▫ 1950–postwar , and other ▫ 1932–Federal troops migration combined Chesapeake cities The 5 million inhabitants of the Chesa- disperse bonus with baby boom ▫ 1970–Amtrak peake Bay region faced a terrible para- marchers in increase regional established Washington population to dox in 1930 (see Map 11). On the surface, ▫ 1972–Hurricane ▫ 1933–Franklin 7 million Agnes devastates nothing seemed to have changed. Delano Roosevelt ▫ 1950 to 1953– region Although population pressure had elected to first term Korean War fought ▫ 1973–Chesapeake as president clearly left a mark on the region, fish still between U. S.–led Bay Bridge–Tunnel ▫ 1935–Social Security United Nations opens teemed in Bay waters, and farm fields Act passed by troops and ▫ 1973–OPEC oil Congress Communist North still swelled with produce ready for mar- embargo creates ▫ 1939–World War II Korean and Chinese ket. The impressive technological forces fuel shortages begins in Europe throughout region advances that many believed would ▫ 1952–Chesapeake ▫ 1940–regional ▫ 1983–Environmental Bay Bridge opens assure unending progress and prosperity population nears 5.5 Protection Agency had not disappeared. Yet for a second million ▫ 1956–Federal establishes time in less than forty years, financial ▫ 1941–America Interstate Highway enters World War II Act passed by Program dealings and market forces beyond the on Allied side Congress ▫ 1989–Cold War ends average person’s understanding had ▫ 1942–Pentagon ▫ 1958–National De- as Soviet Union plunged Chesapeake Bay and the rest of opens in Arlington, fense Education Act collapses the nation into a devastating economic passed by Congress ▫ 1990–regional ▫ 1945–Harry S. ▫ 1964–Economic population reaches downturn. This downturn is still known Truman becomes Opportunity Act 10.5 million today as the Great Depression. president following passed by Congress ▫ 2000–regional Roosevelt’s death ▫ 1965 to 1973– population reaches This depression was even worse than the ▫ 1945–World War II American military 12 million one in 1893. Foreign markets collapsed ends involvement in as the American crash triggered a world- ▫ 1947–Cold War Vietnam begins as Executive ▫ 1966–Historic wide panic. Money and credit suddenly Order 9835 author- Preservation Act became hard to get. Factories, shops, izes loyalty checks passed by Congress and businesses closed, unable to raise

An Ecology of People and Place 139 Map 11: Chesapeake Metropolis, 1930 to 2000

95

Hopewell Furnace NHS 76

76 1 ● Lancaster S u s 95 qu ●Yo r k eh Ferncliff Wildlife a 81 n and Wildflower AMTRAK na R Preserve Gilpin's iv Falls er 83 40 Conowingo Dam Sion Hill Gettysburg NMP ● Chesapeake and Elkton Canal Eisenhower NHS 1 ● Long Green Chesapeake City 70 Creek and e Aberdeen Proving g r Whitaker Sweathouse d e Ground i r in 95 e R v Chambers Branch

ta i Hampton v n i n i Farm Natural Area t R u NHS R 13 c o Chestertown r o y t P te c M a a Historic es a t Towson ● th C h c a District u p C o Frederick ● o 70 s Fort McHenry NM S n c o ● o R iver & Historic Shrine

M r C&O Canal e Baltimore v Harper's Ferry Gap NHP Columbia ● i R BWI k Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Nat. Agric. Airport 3 301 Sugar Loaf n Harpers Ferry Res. Ctr.● a Mountain Annapolis t Gen. George p Silver Chesapeake o C. Marshall House ● h Rockville Spring Greenbelt 50 C Bay Bridge iver Bethesda ● 81 50 Rachel Carson House Manassas Gap Arlington ke R Washington DC Alexandria Dulles P tico 64 a n IAP t a u N Thorofare Occoquan x Belt Woods e Gap Manassas n 13 t ● Cambridge ● National Battlefield R Warrenton 1 i Bull Run Mtn. r 301 v

e e iv r Battle Creek 50 r Thornton Gap V e i v 95 c R Cypress Swamp r ● i a g Salisbury in iver R m Calvert R ia

h a to Thomas Cliffs Preserve & a Camp Hoover p o o P Stone NM M oke R d p K a a A r n y s h R l a n Gari Patuxent a n i a T n ocom a M d e t n Melchers Naval Air P n Shenan h doah n A R S u ● o Home Station a o NP Culpeper c i k lr M o Assateague ive P a e R r Caledon o St. Mary's City T d Island NS g R to Smith a d n i ● State Park mac River i Rapida ver Island n R g Fredericksburg i e George Washington e u Fredericksburg & Spence's r l S B Birthplace NM Montpelier 1 Spotsylvania Point o u Forest County NMP n d Rappahannock R Tangier Island 301 M C at ● ta iver h Charlottesville po 13 81 95 ni e Chesapeake and p R s h Ga iv Virginia fis e a Ohio Railroad (CSX) Rock P r 64 a p Coast Virginia mu Pamunkey n e Reserve Randolph ke Indian y a Cottage R Reservation Mattaponi Indian Green iv k e Reservation d Richmond r e a Springs ro NBP Robert R. Moton B il a House R Norfolk Southern Y o a rn Jam r e es Railroad k River Maggie L. y th R u Walker NHS Richmond i o 64 ve S r & r Colonial e Cape Blue Ridge Mountains lk o iv ● Williamsburg rf Charles o R N Appomattox Court x Fort Langley House NHP J Chesapeake tto Petersburg a s a m d Bay Bridge ●Hampton oa Gap m e R Tunnel o Petersburg ● s n p R to p Colonial NHP/ i p NB v ● m Cape A er a Jamestown NHS/ Newport H ● Henry Yorktown Battlefield Norfolk ● News Seashore Lynchburg 460 95 Charles C.Steirly 460 ● Natural Area Robert R. Moton Natural Area Portsmouth High School 85 Great Dismal Dismal 1 Norfolk & Southern Railroad Swamp Swamp Canal NorfolkRailroad & Southern

K A

R LEGEND T M National Historic Landmark Highway A © National Natural Landmark Railroad National Park Unit Canal ¥ City or Town Bay ■ Natural or Cultural Feature Plain 0 5 10 25 50 miles Metropolitan Region Piedmont 0 5 10 40 80 kilometers North

140 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS KEY LOCALES

NATIONAL HISTORIC Baltimore City Gari Melchers Home Charlottesville LANDMARKS Landmarks [1916-1932], Landmarks Chesapeake (Lightship Stafford County Shack Mountain District of Columbia No. 116) [1930] Robert R. Moton High [1916-1955] Constitution Hall College of Medicine of School [1950-1974], University of Virginia [1924-1930] [19th-20th Prince Edward County Historic District Francis Perkins House centuries] Robert R. Moton House [19th-20th centuries] [1937-1940] Elmer V. McCollum House [1935], Gloucester County Hampton City Sequoia (Presidential [ca. 1920] Landmarks yacht) [1931-1977] U.S.S. Torsk [1944] Portsmouth (Lightship No. 101) [1900-1949], EightFoot High-Speed Supreme Court Building Portsmouth Tunnel [1936-1956] [1935] Dwight D. Eisenhower Virginia Randolph Cottage Full Scale Tunnel [1931], Maryland Farmstead [1950s], [1937], Henrico County Hampton Rachel Carson House Adams County Savannah (Nuclear ship) Hampton Institute [1956-1964], Prince [1958], Newport News [1868-present] George’s County Virginia Spence’s Point, John R. Lunar Landing Research Whittaker Chambers Farm Camp Hoover [1929- Dos Passos Farm Facility [1965-1972] [1948], Carroll County 1932], Madison County [1806, 1940s], Rendevous Docking Westmoreland County Greenbelt Historic District Gerald R. Ford, Jr. House Simulator [1963-1972] [1935-1946], Prince [1955], Alexandria City Arlington County Variable Density Tunnel George’s County Jackson Ward Historic Landmarks [1921-1940] Sion Hill [19th-20th District [19th-20th Charles Richard Drew centuries], Harford centuries], Richmond House [1920-1939] County General George C. Fort Myer Historic District Spacecraft Magnetic Test Marshall House [1925- [1900s] Facility [1966], Prince 1949], Loudon County George’s County The Pentagon [1942]

capital or meet payrolls (see Figure 100). Workers were fired and lost life savings as some banks failed and others foreclosed on heavily mortgaged homes, farms, and equipment. The Depression hit hard everywhere in the Chesapeake Bay region. Tens of thou- sands of unemployed workers faced poverty in the cities and towns. Poor peo- ple in city tenements confronted the Figure 100: The Standard Oil Fleet in Mothballs during twin specters of homelessness and the Great Depression. hunger. In the countryside, farmers and (Photograph courtesy of the Calvert Marine Museum Collection) fishermen, making barely enough to live, struggled to hold on to their fields, boats, and implements. President Herbert Hoover’s pleas for executives to hire back workers and increase production were ignored by corporations unable to sell products on depressed world markets. As they did to Coxey’s Army in 1894, fed- eral troops scattered and burned a sprawling camp of 20,000 destitute veter- ans in 1932 (see Figure 101). These veter- ans had marched on Washington to get Figure 101: Bonus March Shacks Afire, an advance on bonus money promised Anacostia Flat, Washington, 1932. for their war service. (Photograph courtesy of the National Archives)

Where, What, and When 141 Later that year, Chesapeake Bay voters tension lines soon carried electric cur- showed that they had lost faith in govern- rent to rural towns and farms. This cur- ment assurances that prosperity was just rent was generated in new Piedmont around the corner. They helped vote a hydroelectric complexes and Coastal new Democratic administration into Plain coal-fired plants. Steam locomo- office. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the tives hauled the soft bituminous coal newly elected president, started federally burned in these plants from mines in funded New Deal public works projects Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky and direct relief programs to lower on improved rail networks. unemployment, stimulate recovery, and During the late 1930s, world tensions help the neediest citizens. worsened. The pace of production in Workers employed by such new agencies regional factories and shipyards as the Public Works Administration and increased as the federal government hur- the Civilian Conservation Corps began ried to arm the nation in response. The constructing or repairing highways, government began erecting large bridges, dams, and parklands through- planned communities, such as Greenbelt, Greenbelt, Maryland out the Bay region and the nation. High Maryland, to house low-income workers

GREENBELT HISTORIC DISTRICT. Greenbelt, Maryland was the first of three “Greenbelt” towns built by the Federal Resettlement Administration around the outskirts of Washington, D.C. between 1935 and 1938 to house low and middle income inner city working families impoverished by the Great Depression. Built astride the Baltimore-Washington corridor near U.S. Route 1 in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Greenbelt was a carefully planned and largely self-contained suburban community. Greenbelt was originally planned to accommodate 1,000 families. The Farm Security Administration expanded the community to house several thousand defense workers between 1941 and 1942. Greenbelt was constructed in accordance with “Garden City” lines. The Garden City movement empha- sized the benefits of nature and community. Believing that contact with nature in highly ordered formal landscaped settings ennobled and enriched the human spirit–a belief long held by designers of gardens and parklands for the rich and well-to-do–Greenbelt planners made such benefits available to people of more modest means from the region’s cities. The town itself was harmoniously laid out in a rural setting on a gently slop- ing crescent-shaped plateau open to cooling breezes and offering broad vistas of the sur- rounding farms and fields. Town buildings were constructing in a well-tended rustic setting of wooded parklands, winding trails, and a twenty-seven acre artificial lake. The structural organization of the place was intended to foster a strong sense of commu- nity. Rows of functionally designed modern- Figure 102: Aerial View, Greenbelt, Maryland. (Photograph courtesy of the ) istic frame and concrete-block housing units were clustered together in “super-blocks” (see Figure 102). Each unit had access to a garden plot and a service area. Underpasses connected super-block residences to a town common consisting of shops, police and fire-fighting facilities, a garage and gas station, and a community center that also housed an elementary school. A swimming pool, other recreational facilities, and allotment gardens tended by community resi- dents were located behind the common. Free movement and open access was encouraged in every way. Fences were prohibited (hedges marked property lines), and footpaths linked all units in the complex.

142 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS employed in new suburban production plants. Yet hard times were not over for all citizens. New Deal policies helped relieve the worst effects of economic stagnation, but they did not end the Great Depression. Lingering unemploy- ment and worker unrest fueled fears of left wing communist and right wing fas- cist revolution. Unwilling to depend on the promises of politicians and corporate managers, more and more workers in Figure 103: Interned German Liners Moored off Point and around manufacturing centers in Patience, Maryland Await Disposition, ca. 1940. Lancaster, York, Baltimore, and Wash- (Photograph courtesy of the Calvert Marine Museum collection) ington joined industrial unions. With the ernment contracts. Regional population strength of the unions behind them, they swelled as hundreds of thousands of could strike for jobs, higher wages, and workers moved to Baltimore and other better working conditions. But in more Chesapeake Bay locales to work in war southerly parts of the region, workers did plants manufacturing huge amounts of not join unions in large numbers, arms and munitions. because they felt threatened by job loss and discouraged by the violence that Massive steel aircraft carriers, fast cruis- authorities used to suppress strikes in ers, and hundreds of smaller ships of all areas believed to be more liberal, such sizes and descriptions came out of ship- as Pennsylvania’s steel country and the yards in Newport News, Norfolk, Great Lakes industrial belt. Annapolis, Washington, and Baltimore. Textile mills along the fall line in places The outbreak of World War II in Europe like Richmond and Petersburg wove fab- in 1939 changed life in the ric for uniforms and tents, and Virginia’s dramatically. Although the nation Coastal Plain paper mills produced vast remained neutral, President Roosevelt quantities of paper for the millions of pledged to convert America into an arse- documents and forms required to run nal of democracy. Programs such as the war effort. Lend-Lease, which exchanged American weapons for access to British bases in Mobilization opened new opportunities the Western Hemisphere, strongly for African Americans and women. A pushed military production. Higher new generation of African Americans wages, along with the draft deferments from rural areas moved to Chesapeake granted to workers in essential industries Bay cities and towns to work in war industries. And throughout the nation, after the passage of the Selective Service huge numbers of women joined the Act in 1940, attracted men and women workforce as millions of men were to war plants throughout the region. inducted into the armed forces. Wartime mobilization in the United Thousands of women also volunteered States followed the Japanese attack on to serve in newly organized support units Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 (see such as the Women’s Army Corps. Figure 103). As far as the economy was Existing military bases were expanded concerned, this finally achieved what and new ones were erected throughout strikes and New Deal policies had failed the region. Hundreds of thousands of to do. Although essential resources such service men and women from all over as meat and gasoline were strictly the country trained in regional camps, rationed, economic conditions generally airfields, and naval stations. Massive new improved during the war years. administrative complexes and housing Unemployment gradually disappeared projects were constructed in and around when vast numbers of workers found Washington. The largest of the adminis- jobs in industries that were changing to tration centers was the central military meet the military requirements of gov- headquarters known as the Pentagon. It Pentagon, Virginia

An Ecology of People and Place 143 contained enough offices to accommo- on April 12, 1945), worked with Congress date 35,000 military and civilian employ- to keep a careful watch on Soviet activity ees. Officially opening its doors in and to spend generous amounts on Arlington, Virginia, in 1942, it is still the defense. Federal agencies grew in size largest office building in the world (see and number, opening headquarters in Figure 104). and around Washington. The various bureaus struggled to manage growing military funding and to oversee the new highway, airport, flood control, and other public works projects demanded by citi- zens, who were tired of wartime scarcities and had money to spend. Federal employees worked in a govern- ment system that only a few years before had been openly allied with the Soviet Union. Because some employees might Figure 104: Aerial View of the Pentagon, still be sympathetic to that country, there Arlington, Virginia, 1973. (Photograph courtesy of the U.S. Environmental Protection was concern about the possibility of a Agency and the National Archives) communist conspiracy. President Truman issued Executive Order 9835 in 1947, Norfolk and Baltimore became major authorizing loyalty checks and establish- ports of departure for American forces ing local loyalty review boards. Under bound for Europe and the Pacific. Many the new policies, hundreds of govern- of the millions of men and women sent ment workers suspected of subversive overseas during the fighting also reen- leanings were fired from their jobs. tered the nation through these ports after To expose those who were suspected the war ended in 1945. Hundreds of and to unite the nation in a crusade thousands of American soldiers, sailors, against Communism, the government and airmen had been killed and many held public hearings and show trials. The more wounded, but the United States most famous of these began in 1948, was the only major combatant whose when a former Communist Party mem- homeland had not been devastated dur- ber, Whittaker Chambers, appeared ing the war. America held a world before the House Un-American Activities monopoly on nuclear weapons and had Committee to accuse Alger Hiss, a for- a newly developed military-industrial mer State Department official and presi- complex operating at peak capacity. In dential advisor, of being a Soviet agent. other words, the nation had grown into a The evidence included some sensitive superpower. Whittaker Chambers papers supposedly hidden at Whittaker Farm, Maryland As it had done at the end of earlier wars, Chambers Farm, which is now a the government quickly ended rationing, National Historic Landmark. The Hiss and women workers again were re- case riveted the nation’s attention on placed by returning servicemen. But the Washington as East-West tensions finally dawn of the nuclear age and the Soviet flared into what came to be called the Union’s development as a rival super- Cold War. In 1948, Soviet forces block- power compelled the government to aded Berlin in an attempt to force with- break with the past in other ways. drawal of American, British, and French Although it had been forced to ally with occupation troops. One year later, the the Communist nation during the war, Soviet Union exploded its first nuclear the United States now feared the bomb. The Soviet nuclear threat and the prospect of Soviet expansion abroad and Communist expansion in Eastern Communist subversion at home. A new Europe, China, and the Korean penin- American administration, led by Harry S. sula created a great deal of fear in the Truman (the vice-president who became United States. In Washington, politicians president after Roosevelt died in office like Wisconsin senator Joseph R.

144 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS McCarthy whipped those fears into anti- communist hysteria. Newspapers, newsreels, radio, and, increasingly, television, carried news of these and other developments into homes throughout the Chesapeake region and the rest of the nation. Those who wanted to send a public message to the government took advantage of Washington’s position as the symbolic and communications center of the nation. The Capitol Mall, Lafayette Park, and other open spaces in the capital became backdrops for mass marches Figure 105: Aerial View of the Dwight David Eisenhower National Historic supporting or protesting various causes Site, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, retirement home of the Commander-in- or policies. Chief of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II and a significant Cold War American President. (Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service) With advances in mass media and air travel and new construction of intra ing families. They were supported by G.I. coastal waterways and interstate super- Bill education benefits, medical services, highways, the United States was develop- and low-interest loans for homes, busi- Capitol Mall and Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C. ing more of a national culture, and the nesses, and farms. These families moved growing Chesapeake Bay population was into homes of their own in rural districts, a part of that. Wartime research and Cold rented apartments in city neighbor- War defense budgets fueled advances in hoods, and flooded into new suburban electronics, synthetics, and jet and rocket developments in places like Bethesda, Bethesda, Towson, and Silver Spring, Maryland propulsion, which in turn boosted pro- Towson, and Silver Spring. duction and created new industries in Single story, ranch-style tract houses– the region and across the country. Post- mass produced and easily affordable by war economic expansion also benefitted veterans taking advantage of government from the absence of significant competi- programs providing mortgages at low tion from other nations, as well as from interest rates–were built on small lots in the easy availability of cheap imports closed, landscaped developments. These and the eagerness of recovering, war- clusters of homes began to transform devastated foreign markets for American landscapes around Chesapeake Bay aid and exports. cities and towns. Shopping centers con- The Chesapeake Bay regional popula- taining stores, diners, restaurants, movie tion, which rose to nearly 5.5 million on theaters, and other services began to appear along nearby roads, in commer- the eve of American involvement in cial districts known as strips. Large, World War II, continued to grow in the enclosed shopping malls surrounded by postwar years. Some of the increase huge parking lots first appeared in the came through workers drawn to region during the late 1960s. Chesapeake Bay war industries, who stayed in the area as the regional econ- Suburban, white collar workers first rode omy shifted to peacetime production. to city jobs in interurban light-rail cars, Vigorous public health programs admin- commuter trains, and buses. But they istered vaccines, gradually eliminating took to their cars as affordable automo- ancient scourges such as polio, typhus, biles, financed by low cost loans, poured and diphtheria, which significantly low- off Detroit’s production lines. Existing air- ered child mortality rates and increased fields, such as Washington’s National National Airport, Washington, D.C. overall health. The postwar baby boom Airport, were expanded, and such enor- mous new facilities as Maryland’s Balti- Baltimore and Washington also contributed to population growth. A International Airport, new generation of young, upwardly more and Washington International Maryland mobile veterans married and began rais- Airport and Virginia’s Dulles Airport Dulles Airport, Virginia

An Ecology of People and Place 145 COLONIAL NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK. Established by Congress in 1930, this historical park, located on the Virginia Peninsula between the James and York Rivers, preserves buildings, structures, landscapes, and archeological sites associated with some of the major events in American history. A twenty-three-mile long scenic parkway built and maintained by the National Park Service (see Figure 106) passes from Jamestown, the site of the first successful English colony in America, past Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital, to Yorktown, the place where Cornwallis surrendered his army to Washington and Rochambeau following the final climactic battle of Figure 106: Colonial Parkway Vista at the Jamestown the Revolution on October 19, 1781. Island Isthmus, Virginia, 1996. (Photograph by LANDSCAPES courtesy of the National Park Service) Today, the National Park Service and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities each own portions of the original Jamestown settle- ment. Williamsburg is owned and operated by the private non-profit Colonial Williamsburg Foundation established during the 1920s. The National Park Service administers the Yorktown battlefield. Colonial National Historical Park also encompasses four detached areas. Green Spring Plantation preserves the home of Virginia provincial governor William Berkeley. The Memorial marks the first landfall of the Jamestown colonists. Swann’s Point preserves an unspoiled stretch of land near Jamestown. And Tindalls Point contains earthworks thrown up during the Civil War.

were constructed. Because people chose The growing numbers of cars and trucks to use roads and airlines more and more traveled on existing, improved, or newly often, passenger rail lines throughout the constructed highways. Some, like nation began to fail in the 1950s and Colonial Parkway, were meticulously 1960s. landscaped scenic routes passing In the cities, electrified trolley lines were through historic and nature preserves. replaced by buses powered by electricity, Others, such as U.S. Routes, and later, gasoline, and diesel. Lighter, cheaper, limited-access freeways, were transporta- and more efficient diesel engines also tion arteries. These roads dramatically replaced steam locomotives by 1960. transformed the regional landscape. First Mostly, freight lines that served more built during the 1930s, U.S. Routes were northerly stretches of the Chesapeake the nation’s first modern highway system. Bay region shrank as competition from Most featured two or three lanes of all- the trucking industry grew and demand weather, concrete-paved roadways. Each for expensive hard anthracite coal col- ran on heavily graded roadbeds that cut lapsed. These included the Baltimore through hills and other elevations and and Ohio, the Reading, the Erie, and the that crossed steel-frame and reinforced Pennsylvania railroads. Corporate merg- concrete bridges and causeways span- ers, diversification, and growing demand ning rivers, swamps, and valleys. Access for the cheaper soft coal from West to these roads generally was open, and Virginia and Kentucky which was burned signs and traffic lights controlled inter- in Coastal Plain generating plants helped sections and regulated pedestrian and keep alive lines such as the Norfolk automobile traffic. Southern and the Chesapeake and Ohio (now a subsidiary of a huge conglomer- Commerce and industry developed ate, the CSX Corporation). along stretches of U.S. Routes in and

146 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS near cities and towns. New types of road- side establishments appeared, including diners, fast food stands, and motels. Owners used flamboyant, eye catching architectural signs and displays to draw in passing motorists. Many of these were made of newly available and extremely flexible materials such as aluminum and plastic. Entirely new forms of buildings appeared as business owners turned the Figure 108: Chesapeake Bay Bridges, June, very shapes of their establishments into 1973. (Photograph courtesy of the U.S. Environmental advertisements. Buildings in the shapes Protection Agency and the National Archives) of hamburgers, hot dogs, and ice cream sodas began to sprout up on the sides of Figure 108). It carries U.S. Route 50 regional roads. across the narrows dividing Maryland’s Eastern and Western Shores above After the Federal-Aid Highway Act of Annapolis. In 1973, an even more 1956 was passed, even larger Interstate impressive achievement was scored highways–limiting access to controlled when the 17.6-mile Chesapeake Bay Chesapeake Bay interchanges and permitting high speed Bridge-Tunnel linked the Eastern Shore Bridge-Tunnel, Virginia travel unhampered by stop lights–were with the mainland at Virginia Beach. constructed. Unlike earlier roads, Inter- These and other bridges and tunnels states were entirely self-enclosed, park- replaced ferries and significantly like landscapes cutting wide paths reduced travel times. Corporations and through cities and countryside. The factories began moving from cities– absence of traffic lights and the wide, which were increasingly choked by truck concrete and asphalt surfaced roadways, traffic and commuter gridlock–to spa- level grades, and gradual, gentle curves cious suburban campuses and business speeded traffic. Drivers could enter and parks close to workers’ homes. Urban leave the roads only at ramped or clover- business districts began to decay as leaf shaped interchanges (see Figure growing numbers of enterprises moved 107). Gas stations, motels, restaurants, to suburban shopping centers, supermar- and, later, shopping centers and malls kets, and malls. These were conveniently showed up more and more at these inter- located near major thoroughfares and changes. surrounded by ample parking lots. Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Maryland Road construction sparked several major During the 1960s, Chesapeake Bay cities engineering achievements in the region. became sites of mass marches as civil The wide waters of the Bay itself were rights demonstrations and Vietnam War first bridged when the Chesapeake Bay protests swept the nation. Washington in Bridge was completed in 1952 (see particular again became a symbolic focus of American political protest (see Figure 107: Figure 109). Fine arts and popular cul- Traffic at the ture still flourished in Chesapeake Bay Junction of cities, but urban sewage, roadway, and Interstate 295 and the other infrastructure systems crumbled Anacostia and services declined as taxpaying Bridge, homeowners and businesses moved out. Washington, Soon, only poor people who could not 1973. afford to move remained in the region’s (Photograph cour- tesy of the U.S. dilapidated inner-city neighborhoods. Figure 109: Civil Rights Environmental New waves of Puerto Rican, Cuban, and March on Washington, Protection Agency August 28, 1963. (Photograph and the National West Indian immigrants joined poor courtesy of the U.S. Information Archives) people already living in the new urban Agency and the National Archives)

An Ecology of People and Place 147 ghettoes. Unemployment, illiteracy, alco- assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. holism, drug addiction, and an enduring sparked riots during the summer of 1968. sense of hopeless despair grew. Alarmed Rising up in frustration, inner city resi- by the seemingly simultaneous emer- dents in Washington, Baltimore, and gence of so many serious problems, other American cities burned homes and some social scientists of the time began businesses in their own neighborhoods. fearing that this combination was creat- Richard M. Nixon’s election as president ing a persistent and self-perpetuating cul- that year failed to end the Vietnam War. ture of poverty. The nation was already demoralized by Washington, D.C., presented the clearest urban turmoil and challenged by example of the chasm separating rich counterculture criticism of traditional and poor in America’s cities. The city values. It reeled when American forces boasted the highest per capita income left Vietnam after an inconclusive cease- levels in the nation. At its center lay the fire agreement was signed in 1973. One glittering stone edifices and monuments year later, Nixon became the first presi- of the capital of the world’s foremost dent in American history to resign from superpower. Yet more than 40 percent of office in disgrace. Then the first OPEC oil the city’s population lived below the embargo, in 1973-1974, caused an oil poverty line in 1962, when Michael shortage that signaled the end of the era Harrington’s influential book, The Other of cheap energy. Chesapeake Bay and America, exposed the fact that 40 million the rest of the nation began to experi- Americans suffered from the effects of ence growing inflation, and economic hunger, joblessness, and substandard recession followed. housing, education, and medical care. Washington’s mostly African American Decline in the quality of American-made poor lived in vast squalid, rundown, and goods and rising demand for cheaper rat-infested ghettoes just beyond the and better designed and engineered gleaming city center (see Figure 110). Japanese and West German products meant that Americans bought more Like many other city governments in the imported goods than they sold as region and the nation, Washington offi- exports. This dramatically increased cials tried to address the problems of American trade deficits. In 1970, several urban decay by demolishing entire major ailing railroads turned their pas- districts of rundown housing in urban senger service over to the federally National Rail Passenger renewal projects. Federal Great Society administered National Rail Passenger System (Amtrak) assistance programs, such as federal System, commonly known as Amtrak. welfare, Medicaid, and food stamps, After drastically cutting service, Amtrak failed to eliminate poverty. Anger in poor devoted most of its resources in the communities grew as people of minority region to developing the moneymaking groups carried an unequal share of the northeastern corridor route, which links fighting in what many considered a cities between Washington and Boston. colonialist war in Vietnam. Then the Throughout the nation, corporations shut down plants and closed offices as profits declined. Inflation and soaring interest rates devastated productivity and lowered consumption. The situation became much worse when OPEC minis- ters cut oil production and raised prices more than 300 percent in 1979. Long lines of cars blocked traffic as cars queued up for suddenly scarce and expensive fuel. People throughout the Figure 110: Slum Alley Behind the Capitol, 1935 (Photograph by Carl Mydans courtesy of the region began to talk seriously about solar Library of Congress) power and other energy alternatives to

148 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS end dependence on prohibitively expen- increased production of goods for sive and increasingly unreliable foreign domestic and foreign markets. The pace oil supplies. The public was already wor- of recovery quickened as a result. ried about the dangers of nuclear tech- Overall regional population also rose nology, and the 1979 Three Mile Island dramatically, increasing from 9 million to Three Mile Island, reactor accident just north of the more than 12 million people between Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay heartland ended hopes 1970 and 2000. that cheap atomic power would be the Revived by the national economic recov- answer to the energy crisis. Diplomatic ery, Chesapeake Bay corporations setbacks, such as the 444-day Iran worked with city governments and com- hostage crisis, and widely unpopular munity activists to redevelop rundown political acts, such as President Jimmy downtown districts and restore poverty Carter’s 1977 decision to sign the treaty blighted neighborhoods. Baltimore’s returning the Panama Canal to Pana- Inner Harbor development encouraged Inner Harbor and manian sovereignty, further eroded peo- construction of new high-rise office National Aquarium, ple’s confidence in their nation’s future. buildings, lured tourists to new attrac- Maryland tions such as the National Aquarium, Union Station, Chesapeake Bay voters helped elect Washington, D.C. Ronald Reagan president in 1980. They and attracted young families to restored were responding to his pledges to restore town houses in newly gentrified neigh- American pride and revive the nation’s borhoods. In Washington, renovated depressed economy by abolishing landmarks, such as Union Station, and restrictive government regulations, massive new construction revived the reducing taxes, ending deficit spending, city center. Similar developments in and encouraging investment. Ironically, other Chesapeake cities reflect the like Franklin Roosevelt before him, remarkable economic recovery that has Reagan used federal funds to spend the stimulated growth throughout the region nation out of recession. He began by at the close of the twentieth century. repudiating the policy of détente, begun by Nixon, that maintained an uneasy Ⅺ PLACE coexistence with the Soviet Union. The dramatic changes outlined above Committing the nation to victory in the have left a seemingly permanent mark Cold War, Reagan started an aggressive on Chesapeake Bay lands, waters, and program of spending to rebuild the skies. The overall number of people liv- nation’s military establishment. Orders ing in the Chesapeake Bay region more for a modernized navy of 600 ships than doubled in this period, from 5 mil- restored activity in Chesapeake Bay ship- lion at its beginning to more than 12 mil- yards. Newly manufactured interceptors lion at its end. Much of this growth, and and bombers crowded onto the flight the development accompanying it, has lines of Andrews Air Force Base and happened in the major suburban com- Andrews Air Force other facilities in and around Wash- plexes surrounding Baltimore and Base, Maryland ington. Laboratories in Maryland and Washington, in the smaller Richmond Virginia received billions of research dol- and metropolitan areas, lars to develop the Strategic Defense and around freestanding towns such as Initiative. This space-based anti-missile Lancaster and York, Pennsylvania. system, popularly known as Star Wars, Although Washington continues to limit was to be capable of shielding the nation the height of its buildings, skyscrapers from ballistic missile attack. today rise into the skies above most other Dramatic developments in electronic Chesapeake Bay downtown districts. automated technologies during the Glass clad towers also cluster together in 1980s further spurred productivity in the suburban office parks and around Dulles, region. The collapse of the Soviet Union, Baltimore-Washington International, and which had been bankrupted by the Cold other regional airports and transporta- War arms race, opened formerly closed tion centers. Long ribbons of highway international markets and encouraged link suburban residential developments,

An Ecology of People and Place 149 commercial strips, and industrial parks that south, the Newport News Shipyard is sprawl across former wetlands and farm Virginia’s largest employer. Newport News fields. Intensive development, spurred by The first half century of metropolitan Shipyard, Virginia population growth and changing real development created pollution, overex- estate values, has changed as much as 70 ploitation, and environmental degrada- percent of the total land area in regional tion that had effects still felt today. metropolitan centers. Overall, agricul- Between 1930 and 1980, easterly winds tural, residential, and industrial develop- carried airborne pollutants that billowed ment has affected more than 40 percent from chimneys of coal-fired generating of all lands in the region. plants, steel mills, and other smokestack The environmental effects of this devel- industries in the nation’s heartland. opment have been dramatic. Wetlands, These pollutants spread an uncontrolled which had long been thought of as pall of acid rain over the region’s lands breeding grounds for disease and as and waters. During this same period, waste lands best used as garbage dumps unregulated industries from as far north and landfill sites, have been particularly as central New York and as far west as hard hit. The 1.2 million acres of wet- West Virginia poured untold quantities of lands remaining in the region today rep- heavy metals, petrochemicals, hydrocar- resent only a fraction of former acreage. bons, mining wastes, and other non- biodegradable pollutants into streams Chesapeake Bay continues to be one of flowing into Chesapeake Bay. So much the nation’s busiest and most economi- anthracite coal waste was dumped into cally important maritime corridors. A the Susquehanna River at Scranton, for workforce of 17,000 men and women example, that it has become economi- working on Bay waters annually catch cally feasible to dredge coal from sedi- and process one-quarter of all oysters ments trapped within the still waters and one-half of all clams consumed in Conowingo Dam, impounded by the Conowingo Dam America. The yearly haul of 95 million Pennsylvania (see Figure 111) and other barriers pounds of blue crabs is the largest such thrown across the lower river to store harvest in the world. Bay waters support water and generate hydro-electric energy. an active sport fishery and provide recre- ation to millions of bathers and boaters. Eroded soils and vast amounts of nitro- Bridges and boats allow penetration of gen, phosphorus, and synthetic chemi- formerly remote parts of the Bay, which cals used in pesticides and fertilizers has sparked tensions between fishing washed from farm fields. Individual and tourism interests. homes and entire municipalities pumped human waste, detergent phos- More than 10,000 oceangoing vessels phates, and other sewage into regional carry 100 million tons of cargo every rivers. Passing ships discharged oil and year to port facilities at Baltimore, other wastes into open Bay waters, intro- Hampton Roads, and smaller harbors. ducing foreign diseases and pests along Sheltered anchorages at the mouth of with the pollution and posing a constant the region’s rivers require constant dredg- ing, which is shown by the number of former Bay ports that no longer exist. The Bay’s already shallow waters also require periodic dredging to keep ship- ping lanes open. Although channel clear- ing has high costs in money and environ- mental impact, to many people the Bay’s economic importance as a major trade corridor justifies the expenses. Water- borne commerce accounts for one-fifth Figure 111: Conowingo Dam Across the of all jobs in Maryland and 15 percent of Susquehanna, ca. 1920-1950. (Photograph by the state’s gross national product. Farther Theodor Horydezak courtesy of the Library of Congress)

150 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS threat of catastrophic spills and leaks. degradation. Over-harvesting threatened Toxic chemicals, such as DDT and other most economically important fish, shell- pesticides, also inadvertently killed off fish, and wildfowl. Oyster and softshell bald eagles in the region and devastated clam production plummeted when other species. Some newly introduced newly introduced diseases ravaged shell- species, such as nutria, brought into the fish communities. Red tides, algae and region to provide a new source of fur plankton blooms, and noxious chemi- and flesh, grew to such large populations cals poisoned the Bay as murky waters, that they threatened established animal clogged with sediment, blocked life- communities. Over-hunting and industri- giving sunlight. Recovering from devasta- alized commercial harvesting threatened tion caused by newly introduced foreign the survival of Bay shellfish, fin-fish, and plant diseases during the early 1930s, eel- wildfowl. grasses and other water plants providing

Figure 112: Shore Erosion at Governor’s Land on the Chickahominy River, Virginia, Figure 113: A Hazy Day at the Bethlehem 1990. (Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service) Steel Plant, Sparrow’s Point, Maryland, 1973. (Photograph by the U.S. Environmental Protection Environmental conditions in the Agency courtesy of the National Archives) Chesapeake Bay region had deteriorated alarmingly by 1970. Vast areas seemed food and shelter to numerous species covered by pavement and unsightly were increasingly crowded out by sud- development. The region’s old-growth den expansions of hydrilla and Eurasian forests were gone–replaced by human watermilfoil. Abrupt increases in the salt habitations, highways, farm fields, or levels of Bay waters, for example, pines planted for quick harvest. Washing allowed watermilfoil to expand explo- away exposed topsoil, erosion also ate at sively, covering almost 50,000 acres of the region’s shorelines (see Figure 112). Bay bottom in 1960 and twice as much Industrial pollution fogged the air and acreage one year later. Although local polluted waterways (see Figure 113). environmental conditions hostile to their Smog choked city skies and acid rain growth caused watermilfoil plants to die threatened to turn formerly thriving off within a year of their appearance, regional lakes into lifeless lagoons. Water their sudden and catastrophic expansion pollution was so bad in major regional left an enduring mark on Bay water plant waterways that the Susquehanna, life. A survey conducted in 1978, for Potomac, and James Rivers seemed little example, found that only 40,000 acres of more than open sewers. Numbers of Bay bottom was covered by submerged shad dropped dramatically after con- aquatic vegetation of any type. This is struction of dams across the lower only a tiny percentage of the total Susquehanna blocked their spawning amount of acreage covered by aquatic runs. Bay wildlife lost essential habitat as plants in earlier times–specialists think increasing amounts of wetlands were drained and buried under dumped that vast meadows of underwater grasses garbage, dredge spoil, and other landfill. and other submerged aquatic vegetation may have covered as much as 600,000 The open waters of the Bay also showed acres of Bay bottom at the time colonists unmistakable signs of environmental first set foot on Chesapeake shores.

An Ecology of People and Place 151 Water plants starved for light in cloudy The findings from these and other stud- Bay waters. Periodic catastrophes, such ies led the United States Environmental as Hurricane Agnes, which hit the region Protection Agency to establish the Chesapeake Bay Program in 1972, also washed away entire com- Chesapeake Bay Program in 1983. This munities of submerged aquatic vegeta- innovative partnership coordinated the tion. Destruction of oxygen producing efforts of government agencies, preserva- plants combined with the oxygen rob- tionists, and concerned citizens in the bing process of decomposition to create 64,000-square-mile Chesapeake Bay a condition known as anoxia, a lowering basin. The program provides technical of the volume of dissolved oxygen in the assistance, research support, and a water. Because oxygen is needed to sup- forum for airing issues relating to the port aquatic life, the lack of it increased maintenance and restoration of the the loss of plants and animals. region’s environment. Program partners have pledged to work together to reduce Commercial catches of striped bass industrial pollution, increase acreage dropped from 15 million to 2 million covered by wetlands and submerged pounds per year in a single decade. Knowing that 90 percent of striped bass aquatic grasses, restore plant and animal on the east coast spawned, matured, and communities, and help farms and fed in the Bay, the alarmed Maryland municipalities reduce the amount of authorities banned all fishing of striped nutrients flowing into Bay waters by 40 bass in state waters. Virginia also moved percent by the year 2000. to limit catches of threatened species. Several major successes have been Concerned about both the long-term scored since 1983. Bald eagle popula- degradation of the regional environment tions rebounded significantly between and the sudden and enormous devasta- 1989 and 2000. Releases of chemicals tion caused by Hurricane Agnes, many from factories, sewage systems, and farm Chesapeake Bay residents welcomed fields decreased more than 55 percent passage of the Federal Clean Water Act during the same period. Careful manage- in 1972. The act established uniform ment of fertilizers, insecticides, and water quality standards, placed limits on sewage is producing significant declines types and amounts of pollutants poured in harmful mineral and nutrient concen- into rivers, and required construction of trations in Bay sediments and waters. new sewage lines and water treatment And acreage covered by submerged plants (see Figure 114). One year later, aquatic grasses has increased more than Senator Charles Mathias of Maryland 60 percent since 1984. began supporting studies to assess the Federal, state, and municipal laws and impacts of industry, municipal govern- ordinances currently give varying levels ments, agriculture, development, and ris- of protection to threatened cultural and ing population on the Chesapeake Bay natural resources in the region. The environment. region currently has seventy State Parks and Forests, fifty State Game Lands and Wildlife Management Areas, forty-two National Parks, sixteen military installa- tions, ten National Wildlife Refuges, and two Department of Agriculture facili- George Washington ties–the George Washington National National Forest, Virginia Forest, in Virginia, and the National National Agricultural Agricultural Research Center, in Research Center, Maryland Maryland. Web sites listing these facilities and providing other information about any of them may be found in the Sources Figure 114: Water Filtration Plant, section of this volume. The personnel at Occoquan, Virginia, 1973. these sites work vigorously to enforce (Photograph by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency courtesy of the National Archives) protective regulations on more than 1

152 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS million acres of public land in the Virginia’s Coastal Plain and the Maryland Chesapeake heartland. Public utilities and Pennsylvania Piedmont. and private organizations are increas- Wartime development stimulated growth ingly forming partnerships with agencies in the Washington metropolitan area and at all levels of government to restore the in other urban centers where war indus- environment. tries were located. Although Washington Although these and many other continued to grow dramatically after the improvements provide good reasons to war, urban development elsewhere in be optimistic about the restoration of the region began to slow during the the environment, much remains to be 1950s and 1960s. Population profiles in done. High nutrient levels in Bay waters, city centers began to change as busi- which are believed to be responsible for nesses and jobs moved out to the sub- turning a usually harmless microscopic urbs. City populations became poorer. dinoflagellate named pfisteria into a Development in cities increasingly highly toxic killer of fish in 1997, must be shifted from construction of new busi- reduced. Increases in development rates ness buildings to erection of publicly lead to corresponding decreases in funded housing projects and other pro- forest acreage and waterfowl habitat, grams providing affordable housing to showing how humans can transform the low income families. environment. Because of this impact, The focus of private development shifted people must care for their environment to the rural areas surrounding regional as they work to build strong futures for cities as rising regional populations relo- themselves, their families, and their cated to new suburbs. Many older rural communities. villages became suburban enclaves. Entirely new communities also rose up EMERGENCE OF A everywhere in the region. Buying up METROPOLITAN available farmlands and filled wetlands, developers dropped clusters of mass-pro- CULTURAL LANDSCAPE duced residences onto landscaped tracts. Schools, gas stations, fire houses, Ⅺ PEOPLING PLACES diners, drive-in movies, and quickly con- Population rise and redistribution have structed shopping centers surrounded had dramatic impacts on the regional by paved parking lots soon appeared cultural landscape during this period. As nearby. Local governments, unwilling to people were drawn to the region’s cities limit additions to their tax rolls, did little in search of employment during the to regulate suburban sprawl, and at first Depression, the growing population it proceeded haphazardly. prompted more expansion of concen- Alarmed by the sprawling, unsightly trated downtown administrative and landscape resulting from unplanned business districts. Growth required the development, communities quickly construction of expanded public trans- began to put zoning regulations in place. portation systems and the massive devel- Ordinances soon set limits on housing opment of city services and utilities. lot sizes, determined where businesses Although the economic slump ham- could be operated, mandated that struc- pered development, existing shopping tures be set back certain distances from and entertainment districts were roadways, and required adequate parking. enlarged. Private apartment blocks, town houses, and residences also were con- New mini cities of steel-framed, glass- structed or renovated. Urban power and clad high-rises sprouted up at the cores water authorities, struggling to meet the of new suburban concentrations in needs of growing populations, con- places such as Arlington, Columbia, Arlington, Virginia structed dams, reservoirs, and generating Bethesda, and Silver Spring during the Columbia, Bethesda, and Silver Spring, Maryland plants in rural parts of southeastern 1970s. Larger and more imposing sky- scrapers appeared in rehabilitated water-

Emergence of a Metropolitan Cultural Landscape 153 front downtown districts such as The movement of hundreds of thou- Baltimore’s Inner Harbor as the economy sands of migrants from other parts of the began recovering during the 1980s. country and the world to a new region Drawn by the region’s healthier econ- where most were strangers increased omy, new generations of Asian, African, reliance on services provided by and Latin American immigrants estab- churches, philanthropic societies, social lished new communities in old residen- clubs, and other community institutions. tial districts in Chesapeake Bay cities and Many old institutions closed or relo- towns by the 1990s. Signs in their native cated. New and old ethnic, religious, and languages that marked churches, gather- cultural associations renovated or ing places, and business establishments erected new community centers, meet- added new diversity to the region’s ing halls, recreational facilities, hospitals, cultural landscape. rest homes, and cemeteries throughout the region. Inspired by the civil rights Ⅺ CREATION OF SOCIAL movement and its Indian equivalent, then known as Red Power, Native INSTITUTIONS American people throughout the region Massive social change and mobility began reasserting their cultural identities. marked the years of this period. As more Government played a greater part in people acquired cars, many established social life during this period. Passage of neighborhood communities were trans- the Social Security Act in 1935 created formed and new ones created. Increased the nation’s first social welfare system. prosperity in the years after the Great Taxes paid by employers and withheld Depression brought an era of social from employee wages helped fund a mobility unlike any before. Substantial plan that provided unemployment com- numbers of working class people, pensation, aid for the infirm and for employed in regional industries and sup- dependent mothers and children, pen- ported by programs such as the G.I. Bill, sions, and payment to survivors’ families. saw their children enter the ranks of the Because it gave benefits to workers, the middle class. Increased educational Social Security system did not help a opportunity and longer periods of edu- new generation of poor people who cation allowed people to train for new, were unable to find work during the highly skilled jobs. They also delayed prosperous postwar decades. some workers’ entry into the workforce, which prevented flooding of the labor In 1964, President Lyndon Baines market. As women fought for equal rights Johnson moved to address this new form of poverty by sponsoring passage of the and equal pay and groups who had suf- Economic Opportunity Act, which fered racial or ethnic bias fought against extended medical services and financial laws enforcing statutory segregation and relief to the needy. Passed at a time when racial discrimination, new opportunities the nation found itself drifting toward opened for them. war in Vietnam, this centerpiece of John- Changing patterns of work and employ- son’s ambitious Great Society program ment transformed family dynamics helped millions of people. But it did not everywhere. The cost of living rose as liv- end poverty. Congress was unwilling to ing standards improved, and households raise taxes to the level needed to simulta- soon required incomes from all adult res- neously fight the war on poverty, the idents. Divorce rates rose as economic Cold War, and the fighting in Vietnam. So opportunities and changing values made it failed to raise the funds needed to it seem more plausible for some people establish long-term programs that might to live alone. Residence sizes reflected have wiped out need in American society. this trend, generally becoming smaller as But public monies did underwrite a mas- smaller nuclear, one-parent, and single sive school building program throughout households replaced earlier multi-gener- the 1960s. Colleges offering baccalaure- ational families. ate degrees and universities supporting

154 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS graduate study programs were enlarged Post into national prominence. Washing- and expanded. Two-year community and ton also became the scene of countless junior colleges were built in many coun- novels and the backdrop of hundreds of ties. New commuter campuses emerged filmed dramas, thrillers, mysteries, and in Chesapeake Bay cities. And public comedies. and private funds also supported con- Motion pictures have also helped struction of new meeting halls, confer- Baltimore emerge as a unique icon of ence centers, and other community popular imagination. Director Barry social facilities. Levinson brought a wistfully nostalgic New community self-help programs were vision of the city to life in films such as created to address social problems when Diner (1977) and Avalon (1990). More the federal government moved to limit its recently, Levinson has helped illuminate involvement in social welfare programs a grittier side of Baltimore life in the criti- during the 1980s. Workfare began to cally acclaimed television drama replace welfare as the federal govern- Homicide (1992-1999). On the less main- ment turned over control of relief pro- stream side, film maker John Waters has grams to the states. Federal intervention created an image of Baltimore as a in social life further diminished as agen- weirdly sweet (and occasionally shock- cies increasingly worked to create part- ingly strange) working class paradise in nerships, such as the Chesapeake Bay films such as Pink Flamingos (1972), Program, to coordinate the voluntary Hairspray (1987), and Pecker (1998). efforts of state governments, municipali- Popular culture also flourished in more ties, service organizations, private corpo- rural areas of the region. Radio and the rations, and individuals. rising recording industry helped country music grow in popularity. Carved wood- Ⅺ EXPRESSING CULTURAL en decoys grew from everyday tools into VALUES a highly marketable art form. Collectors and curators from Baltimore, Washing- The Chesapeake Bay region became a ton, and other urban centers increas- center of American cultural expression ingly scoured the region’s in the decades following 1930. Although hinterlands in search of New York and Hollywood had become antique or homemade fur- centers of American style, Washington’s niture, furnishings, paint- monuments, meeting halls, and mall had ings, and other folk arts. become stages on which policymakers, The Waltons, a popular trend-setters, and demonstrators set television show that aired much of the cultural tone of the nation. from 1972 to 1981 brought This tone has shifted continually, from Virginia screenwriter Earl the self-righteousness of the Progressive Hamner Jr.’s vision of an Era, the hardheaded practicality of the idealized close-knit rural Depression and war years, the self- family to American audi- assuredness of the Cold War, the turbu- ences at a time when politi- lent changes of the 1960s, and the rise of cal and cultural conflict identity politics pressing agendas of par- threatened to tear apart the ticular ethnic groups, religious view- nation’s social fabric. points, and gender orientations, to the Popular culture also was present struggle to find a place in the expressed in sports stadi- emerging world economic order. ums; on playing fields; Chesapeake region newspapers carried through folk art, furniture the latest news, as well as the views and facades, and painted Figure 115: Baltimore Folk Art: Painted opinions of influential writers such as Art screens on the front stoops screen depicting the nearby Lazaretto Buchwald. The Watergate scandal and of urban neighborhoods Lighthouse on the door of an Elliott Street row house in Baltimore’s Canton the popular film, All the President’s Men (see Figure 115); and in neighborhood, 1990. (Photograph by Elaine Eff (1976) helped propel the Washington urban mural painting. courtesy of the Painted Screen Society of Baltimore, Inc.)

Emergence of a Metropolitan Cultural Landscape 155 Museums, conservatories, theaters, audi- in the region, federal public works pro- toriums, and schools supported the fine jects funded road, dam, and park con- arts in the region’s cities and universities. struction. Federal office buildings Regional architects, writers, and artists housing employees administering these created structures, objects, and land- and other programs rose in centrally scapes reflecting a range of cultural located county seats. tastes. Styles have ranged from the During World War II, armies of framers, streamlined lines of the art deco and art roofers, carpenters, plumbers, brick moderne styles of the 1930s, through the masons, and sheet metal workers built a realism of the war years, the abstract huge number of barracks, warehouses, expressionism of the postwar decades, administrative complexes, and other and the futuristic simplicity of the mod- structures in military bases and depots ernists during the 1960s and1970s, to the throughout the region. Constructed with mix of old and new favored by the post- inexpensive materials from standardized modernist movement of the 1980s and plans, most of these buildings were built 1990s. for a specific purpose and were slated A yearning for simpler times and values for demolition following the end of hos- has been reflected in the colonial revival tilities. Most, however, were maintained and historic preservation movements. as growing tensions with the Soviet During the 1930s, financier John D. Union compelled the government to Rockefeller poured millions of dollars keep its bases open after 1945. The gov- Colonial Williamsburg, into the restoration of Colonial Williams- ernment increasingly used defense Jamestown, and burg. Places significant in American his- needs as justification for new public Yorktown, Virginia tory, such as Jamestown, Yorktown, works and development projects. New Chesapeake and Ohio Gettysburg, and the Chesapeake and limited-access superhighways funded Canal, Maryland Ohio Canal, became national parks. The through the 1956 Interstate Highway Act, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Historic Sites Act of 1935 established the for example, were made part of what National Historic Landmark program. came to be called the National System of Since that time, more than 100 sites of Interstate and Defense Highways. United national significance in the region have States Army Corps of Engineers contrac- been designated as landmarks through tors undertook numerous flood control the program. Passage of the Historic and waterfront stabilization projects to Preservation Act of 1966 established protect American production centers State Historic Preservation Offices in and safeguard strategic resources. every state and created the National Even education came to be regarded as Register of Historic Places to recognize a weapon in the Cold War. Citing the sites of local and state significance. To need for larger numbers of technicians date, more than 1,000 places in the and scientists to produce and operate region have been listed in the National sophisticated weapons systems, Con- Register. gress passed the National Defense Education Act in 1958. Low interest stu- Ⅺ SHAPING THE POLITICAL dent loans, research grants, and other LANDSCAPE funding provided by the act soon led to great growth in college campus con- A growing centralization of authority was struction. Established campuses were required to regulate the vastly increasing, expanded, and new ones opened every- unprecedentedly mobile, consumption- where in the region. oriented, and rapidly changing popula- tions. Stone masons working in regional Many new or larger colleges occupied quarries cut marble, granite, and sand- military bases that had been turned over stone to adorn the facades of the to state and local governments for reuse. increasing number of classical revival Barracks and other structures were con- office complexes and gleaming monu- verted into classrooms, dormitories, and ments that rose at the center of administration buildings. In state capitals, Washington during the 1930s. Elsewhere county seats, and other administrative

156 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS centers, new assembly halls, court- houses, office buildings, fire houses, and recreational facilities rose as city popula- tions began spilling into growing suburbs throughout the region. Federal money funneled to local communities to fight wars on poverty, crime, and drugs built new health centers, police stations, pris- ons, and other facilities.

Ⅺ DEVELOPING THE CHESAPEAKE ECONOMY Unprecedented demographic, social, cultural, and political transformations Figure 117: Aerial View of Saint Mary’s City. led to revolutionary changes in the econ- (Photograph courtesy of the Saint Mary’s City Commission) omy of the region. Despite depression and periodic economic downturns, pro- Postwar prosperity, the shift from an ducers and wholesalers brought ever economy based on producing goods to larger amounts of goods to growing mar- one increasingly focused on providing kets in and beyond the region by using services, the rise of the automobile, and more efficient and productive extraction, the growth of affordable air travel greatly processing, manufacturing, and distribu- expanded the economic value of tourism tion systems. New rail, surface, water, in the region. The natural charms of the and air transportation systems could Blue Ridge, Catoctin Mountain, and Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia carry larger cargoes to markets faster and other scenic locales attracted visitors in ever-growing numbers. Colonial Wil- Catoctin Mountain, more efficiently (see Figure 116). That Maryland made possible the import and export of liamsburg and other historic restorations greater amounts of durable goods. New became national attractions. Well pre- preservation and storage techniques served historic locales, such as allowed greater stockpiling and wider Maryland’s Saint Mary’s City (see Figure Saint Mary’s City, Maryland distribution of perishable produce. 117) and the Virginia towns of Fred- Fredericksburg and Greater quantities of goods crowded ericksburg and Waterford also benefit- Waterford, Virginia onto shelves of growing numbers of spe- ted from heritage tourism. Hunting and cialty shops and ever larger and more sport fishing grew in economic impor- complex department stores. Imposing tance. Outfitters throughout the region glass and steel office buildings rose in supplied rods, reels, and other gear to urban and suburban centers as corpora- sport fishermen going after trout, pick- tions and financial institutions grew in erel, and other game fish. During hunt- size and influence. ing season, hunters sought out deer, duck, and turkey on public lands and private game preserves. Those who Figure 116: could afford it hired boats and pilots at Union Station Looking South local ports to fish for striped bass in the Toward the Bay or marlin, yellowtail, and other game Capitol, the fish in the warm offshore gulf stream cur- Potomac, and rents coursing several miles out from the the National Atlantic’s shores. Airport, 1973. (Photograph by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Ⅺ EXPANDING SCIENCE AND courtesy of the National Archives) TECHNOLOGY The political economy of the period pro- vided support for extraordinary scientific and technological expansion. Financed

Emergence of a Metropolitan Cultural Landscape 157 LANDSCAPE TOWARD THE FUTURE: THE LUNAR LANDING RESEARCH FACILITY. Located at the Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, and completed in 1965 at a cost of $3.5 million, this facility was constructed by NASA as a training simulator to prepare Apollo astronauts to deal with problems associated with lunar landing maneuvers. The facility’s main structure is a 400-foot- long and 230-foot-wide steel A-frame erected on a sandy, pockmarked base resembling the lunar landscape. Astronauts trained in a full-scale lunar excursion module artfully slung on cables suspended from a hydraulically powered crane mounted on a steel overhead traveling bridge. By skillfully shifting the module’s center of gravity, a crane operator could Figure 118: Landscape Toward the Future: The Lunar cancel out up to five-sixth’s of the earth’s gravity; Landing Research Facility, Langley Research Center, Hampton Virginia. (Photograph courtesy of the National about the same force astronauts would encounter on Aeronautics and Space Administration) the Moon. Suspended in a similar way from slings and cables slung from a trolley running on overhead tracks, individual astronauts could also experience the effects of lunar gravity during simulated lunar test walks on the facility’s base. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin logged many hours of training time at the facility while preparing for their successful landing on the Moon on July 19, 1969.

by government funds, encouraged by of the kind of practical application of industries hungry for innovation, and basic research first developed in the stimulated by developments elsewhere, region. Chesapeake Bay region scientists and technicians made contributions that left Ⅺ TRANSFORMING THE a lasting impact on the regional cultural ENVIRONMENT landscape. Scientists working in universi- ties, military laboratories, and federal A population committed to the idea of research facilities in and around the progress and development was able to Baltimore-Washington corridor made transform Chesapeake Bay environments breakthrough discoveries in physics, in ways their ancestors would not have chemistry, and electronics. These and thought possible. Because wood has other discoveries permitted develop- become less economically important ment of radical new technological and agricultural production has advances such as the transistor, jet and decreased, the total number of acres rocket reaction propulsion engines, covered by forest has increased. But nuclear power generation, and plastics, most other environmental indicators in rayon, dacron, nylon, and other synthet- the region have clearly shown signs of Aberdeen Proving ics. At facilities such as the Aberdeen significant degradation since 1930. Most Ground and Patuxent Proving Ground and Patuxent Naval Air analysts agree that pollution, overex- Naval Air Station, Maryland Station in Maryland, and Virginia tech- ploitation, and development have been Langley Research Center nological centers such as Langley the primary causes of this disturbing and Atomic Energy Research Center and the Atomic Energy trend. Poisons and sediment flowing into Commission’s Commission’s Continuous Electronic the Chesapeake from the Susquehanna Continuous Electronic Beam Accelerator Facility in Newport River, for example, have all but wiped Beam Accelerator Facility, Virginia News, technicians continue to perfect out submerged aquatic vegetation in technologies that apply the results of northern parts of the Bay and have seri- pure scientific research. The National ously reduced it farther south. Over- Emergency Medical System is an example harvesting and habitat destruction have

158 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS significantly reduced annual hauls of become a key part of the region’s cul- oysters, clams, and fin-fish. Pesticides tural landscape. Washington’s role as the and indiscriminate over-hunting have cosmopolitan capital of the world’s threatened the survival of hawks, owls, strongest superpower is shown in its eagles, waterfowl, and other birds. Num- buildings and in its monuments that bers of fur-bearing otters, beavers, and commemorate great events and honor minks have shrunk catastrophically, and influential people. The capital district’s only small numbers of bears, bobcats, differences between rich and poor are and other wildlife survive in remote por- reminders of similar contrasts between tions of the Great Dismal Swamp and iso- developed and undeveloped nations. Great Dismal Swamp, lated sections of the upland Piedmont. Virginia Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force bases Vast expanses of land in and around throughout the region support forces regional cities and suburbs have been required to project military power buried beneath landfill or covered with throughout the world. The wreck of the pavement. Enormous tracts of low lying German submarine U-1105 (see Figure fertile bottomlands have been covered 119), a war prize sunk in 1949 off Piney by waters rising behind dams built by Point, Maryland during tests to deter- power utilities and water companies mine the effectiveness of new explosives, throughout southeastern Virginia and the mutely attests both to America’s rise to Maryland Piedmont. Toxic waste dumps world power in World War II and the poison the land near many old industrial nation’s anxiety over maintaining its posi- sites, and layers of heavy metals, chemi- tion in the Cold War that followed. cals, and nutrient runoff still leach into Bay waters from buried sediments. At the The Bay’s importance as a major mar- same time, higher cancer rates than ever itime trade center is shown by its well before recorded have been reported marked and maintained shipping lanes, throughout the region. its massive port facilities, and surviving examples of water craft constructed in Since the 1970s, greater awareness of the the region, such as the World War II World War II liberty impact of these environmental transfor- liberty ship John Brown–first built ship John Brown mations has sparked efforts to reverse in Baltimore and now preserved as a his- their effects. Today, strict federal and toric site commemorating the contribu- state environmental laws require that the tions of the nation’s merchant mariners impact on the environment be consid- in its home port. Jet aircraft flying in and ered in all projects funded or regulated out of Baltimore-Washington, Dulles, and by federal agencies. Other laws require other international airports bring the cities to lower smog-producing ozone region within a few hours’ flying time of and hydrocarbon emissions and mandate the rest of the world. Throughout the treatment of water prior to its discharge region, microwave dishes mounted atop into waterways lands. And public-private steel towers and mobile vans link the partnerships such as the Chesapeake Bay region into a global satellite communica- Program coordinate efforts to lessen fur- ther the impact of non-biodegradable pollutants, restore damaged habitats, reintroduce bald eagles and other species that have been wiped out, and promote development in harmony with the region’s environment.

Ⅺ CHANGING ROLE OF THE CHESAPEAKE IN THE

WORLD COMMUNITY Figure 119: Landscape of Memory: The wreck of the U-1105. Visible evidence of America’s changing (Sketch courtesy of the Saint Clements Island–Potomac role in the world community has River Museum and Maryland Historical Trust)

Emergence of a Metropolitan Cultural Landscape 159 tion network, putting people into instant Dan White, Crosscurrents in Quiet Water: contact with one another everywhere on Portraits of the Chesapeake (1987). the planet. Larger radio telescopes main- tained at civilian and military research Useful environmental surveys centers reach ever farther into deep include the following: space, searching for new discoveries that Michael A. Godfrey, Field Guide to the promise undreamed-of reconsiderations Piedmont (1997). of the nation’s, and the world’s, position J. Kent Minichiello and Anthony W. in the universe. White, eds., From Blue Ridge to Barrier Islands (1997). FURTHER INFORMATION William C. Schroeder and Samuel F. Hillebrand, Fishes of Chesapeake Bay These are foremost among the many (1972). sources containing useful informa- tion surveying this period in Christopher P. White, Chesapeake Bay: A Chesapeake Bay history: Field Guide (1989). Carol Ashe, Four Hundred Years of Vir- John Page Williams, Jr., Chesapeake ginia,1584-1984:An Anthology (1985). Almanac (1993). Carl Bode, Maryland: A Bicentennial David A. Zegers, ed., At the Crossroads: A History (1978). Natural History of Southcentral Penn- sylvania (1994). Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans (1973). John Bowen, Adventuring in the Chesa- The following sources represent peake Bay Area (1990). only a tiny fraction of the many planning and technical reports Robert J. Brugger, Maryland: A Middle prepared since the Chesapeake Bay Temperament,1634-1980 (1988). Program began in 1983: Suzanne Chapelle, et al., Maryland: A Richard A. Batiuk, et al., Chesapeake Bay History of Its People (1986). Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Habitat Frances W. Dize, Smith Island, Chesa- Requirements and Restoration Targets peake Bay (1990). (1992). Frederick A. Gutheim, The Potomac Richard A. Cooksey and Albert H. Todd, (1968). Conserving the Forests of the Alice Jane Lippson, The Chesapeake Bay Chesapeake (1996a). in Maryland (1973). ——-, Forest and Riparian Buffer Con- Paul Metcalf, ed., Waters of Potowmack servation (1996b). (1982). Steve Funderburk, et al., Habitat Lucien Niemeyer and Eugene L. Meyer, Requirements for Chesapeake Bay Chesapeake Country (1990). Living Resources(1991). Edward C. Papenfuse, et al., Maryland: A ——-, Chesapeake Bay Habitat Restora- New Guide to the Old Line State (1979). tion (1995). Morris L. Radoff, The Old Line State: A Jack Greer and Dan Terlizzi, Chemical (1971). Contamination in the Chesapeake Bay (1997). Emily J. Salmon, ed., A Hornbook of Virginia History (1983). Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, A Comprehensive List of Mame and Marion E. Warren, Maryland: Chesapeake Bay Basin Species, 1998 Time Exposures,1840-1940 (1984). (1998). John R. Wennersten, Maryland’s Eastern JMA/Watson, Lower Susquehanna Shore: A Journey in Time and Place Heritage Area Feasibility Study (final (1992). draft, 1998).

160 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS K. Bruce Jones, et al., An Ecological Randall S. Peffer, Watermen (1979). Assessment of the United States Mid- John Sherwood, Maryland’s Vanishing Atlantic Region (1997). Lives (1994). National Park Service, Chesapeake Bay William W. Warner, Beautiful Swimmers: Study (draft, 1993). Watermen, Crabs, and the Chesapeake Robert J. Orth, et al., 1995 Distribution of Bay (1976). Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay (1996). Aspects of cultural life of the period is examined in: Kathryn Reshetiloff, ed., Chesapeake Bay: Introduction to an Ecosystem Helen Chappell, Chesapeake Book of the (1995). Dead (1999). James P. Thomas, ed., Chesapeake (1986). Esther Wanning, Maryland: Art of the State (1998). Useful atlases and geographic Dorothy Williams, Historic Virginia surveys graphically depicting large Gardens (1975). scale patterns of Chesapeake Bay cultural landscape development of Examples of the many studies the period include these: surveying key aspects of social and Michael Conzen, ed., The Making of the political life of the period include: American Landscape (1990). Jo Ann E. Argersinger, Toward a New David J. Cuff, et al., eds., The Atlas of Deal: Citizen Participation, Government Pennsylvania (1989). Policy, and the Great Depression in James E. DiLisio, Maryland, A Geography Baltimore (1988). (1983). Joseph L. Arnold, The New Deal in the Helen Hornbeck Tanner, ed., The Settling Suburbs: A History of the Greenbelt of North America (1995). Town Program,1935-1954 (1971). Derek Thompson, et al., Atlas of Dieter Cunz, The Maryland Germans Maryland (1977). (1948). Kent T. Zachary, Cultural Landscapes of Mary Forsht-Tucker, et al., Association the Potomac (1995). and Community Histories of Prince George’s County (1996). The politics of environmental Ronald L. Heinemann, Depression and conservation are examined in: the New Deal in Virginia (1983). Tom Horton and William M. Eichbaum, Suzanne Lebsock, Virginia Women, 1600- Turning the Tide (1991). 1945 (1987). Kent Mountford, Charles D. Rafkind, and Roland C. McConnell, Three Hundred John Donahue, eds., The Chesapeake and Fifty Years (1985). Bay Program: Science, Politics, and Policy (1999). Eugene L. Meyer, Maryland Lost and Found: People and Places from Chesa- Individual small scale community peake to Appalachia (1986). studies include: Vera F. Rollo, The Black Experience in Boyd Gibbons, Wye Island: Outsiders, Maryland (1980). Insiders, and Resistance to Change Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas’s People (1977). (1990). Jack Temple Kirby, Poquosson (1986). Bruce G. Trigger, ed., Northeast (Vol. 15, Biographical accounts providing Handbook of North American Indians, insights into individual lives include: 1978). Lila Line, Waterwomen (1982). Edward C. Papenfuse, et al., Maryland: A New Guide to the Old Line State (1979).

Further Information 161 Wilcomb E. Washburn, ed., History of Susan G. Pearl, Prince George’s County Indian-White Relations (Vol. 4, Hand- African-American Heritage Survey book of North American Indians, (1996). 1988). Paul Touart, Somerset: An Architectural Key economic studies include: History (1990). George H. Calcott, Maryland and Donna Ware, Ann Arundel’s Legacy: The America,1940-1980 (1985). Historic Properties of Ann Arundel County (1990). Paula Johnson, ed., Working the Water (1988). Christopher Weeks, ed., Where Land and Water Intertwine: An Architectural Joanne Passmore, History of the History of Talbot County, Maryland Delaware State Grange and the State’s (1984a). Agriculture,1875-1975 (1975). ——-, ed., Between the Nanticoke and Glenn Porter, ed., Regional Economic the Choptank (1984). History of the Mid-Atlantic Area Since 1700 (1976). Archeological studies include: John R. Wennersten, The Oyster Wars of William M. Kelso and R. Most, eds., Earth Chesapeake Bay (1981). Patterns (1990).

Useful analyses of regional scientific Paul A. Shackel and Barbara J. Little, and technological developments Historical Archaeology of the during the period may be found in: Chesapeake,1784-1994 (1994). Larry S. Chowning, Harvesting the Paul A. Shackel, et al., eds., Annapolis Chesapeake (1990). Pasts (1998). David A. Hounshell, From the American David G. Shomette, Tidewater Time System to Mass Production, 1800-1932 Capsule (1995). (1984). Among the many studies focusing on David G. Shomette, Shipwrecks on the the development of Washington D.C. Chesapeake (1982). as a cosmopolitan international center are: Surveys examining architecture in the region include: Constance M. Green, Washington: A History of the Capital, 1879-1950 Pamela James Blumgart, At the Head of (1962). the Bay: A Cultural and Architectural History of Cecil County, Maryland Frederick A. Gutheim, Worthy of the (1995). Nation (1977). Michael Bourne, et al., Architecture and Elizabeth Jo Lampl and Kimberly Wil- Change in the Chesapeake (1998). liams, Chevy Chase (1998). Henry Glassie, Pattern in the Material Folk Fredric M. Miller and Howard Gillette Jr., Culture of the Eastern United States Washington Seen: A Photographic (1968). History,1875-1965 (1995). ——, Folk Housing in Middle Virginia (1975). Gabrielle M. Lanier and Bernard L. Herman, Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic (1997). Marilynn Larew, Bel Air: An Architectural and Cultural History,1782-1945 (1995). Calder Loth, Virginia Landmarks of Black History (1995).

162 CHAPTER NINE: CHESAPEAKE METROPOLIS