Maryland
State of eastern USA; nicknamed Old Line State/Free State
Area:
31,600 sq km/12,198 sq mi
Capital:
Annapolis
Cities:
Baltimore, Silver Spring, Dundalk, Bethesda
Physical:
Chesapeake Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean; Assateague Island National
Seashore, a 60-km/ 37-mi barrier island; Blackwater National Wildlife
Refuge, marshland with Canada geese, ospreys, and bald eagles; the Piedmont
region (a plateau)
Features:
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum; Annapolis, a world yachting centre,
with the Maryland State House (the only state capitol to have housed
the US Congress), and the 40-block Colonial historic district; Baltimore,
with the Inner Harbor area (renovated in the 1970s), the USF Constellation
(1797, the first commissioned ship of the US Navy), the Walker Art Gallery,
Baltimore Maritime Museum with the World War II submarine USS Torsk,
Peale Museum, with paintings by Charles Wilson Peale (1814, the oldest
museum in the USA), the B and O Railroad Museum, Star-Spangled Banner
House, H L Mencken House, Edgar Allan Poe House, Babe Ruth's birthplace,
and the Basilica of the Assumption (1812, the oldest Roman Catholic
cathedral in the USA); horse racing (the Preakness Stakes at Baltimore);
St Mary's City, settled in 1634; Ocean City, an Atlantic resort; Columbia,
a new city created in the mid-1960s; the US Naval Academy, Annapolis
(1845); Johns Hopkins University, with a famous medical school, and
the Peabody Institute for music; St John's College, Annapolis (1784),
the third oldest college in the USA; Fort Meade, a government electronic-listening
centre; historic Fort McHenry
Industries:
Poultry, dairy products, machinery, steel, cars and parts, electric
and electronic equipment, chemicals, fish and shellfish
Population:
(1995) 5,042,400
Famous people:
Stephen Decatur, Francis Scott Key, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglass,
Harriet Tubman, Upton Sinclair, H L Mencken, Babe Ruth, Billie Holiday
History:
One of the original 13 states, first settled in 1634; it became a state
in 1788. In 1608 John Smith explored Chesapeake Bay, but the colony
of Maryland, awarded by royal grant in 1632 to Lord Baltimore for the
settlement of English Catholics, dates from 1634. It ratified the federal
Constitution (1788). During the British bombardment of Fort McHenry
in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote the poem ` The Star-Spangled
Banner´, which later became the lyrics to the US national anthem. Some
Marylanders favoured secession during the Civil War, during which the
state was largely occupied by Union troops because of its strategic
location near Washington DC, and the Confederate armies invaded Maryland
three times. In recent times the state has prospered from the growth
of the federal government in nearby Washington and the redevelopment
of Baltimore, whose port ranks second in handling foreign shipping.
Between 1940 and 1980, Maryland's population more than tripled. The
Piedmont region is a plateau 90- 55m/300-1,800 ft in height, bordered
to the west by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the east by the Fall
Line where rivers drop rapidly to the coastal plain. Along the Fall
Line are many farms which grew up because of the availability of water
power.
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