First map – July 1868. Showing Plat and Sections of Streets Submerged by Flood Exhibiting Proposed Changes Projected to Relieve the City Against Future Overflow by Latrobe, Trimble and Tegmeyer, Commissioners.

The area between the green lines is the flooded zone. The blue is the proposed changes. The grey being the actual Jones Falls. The smaller diagrams show the various streets and how high the water was when they flooded. It appears that the Falls rose about 20 feet in spots. The lower left diagram shows the proposed changes to streets.

A few things I find interesting is; the drawing of the skating pond as being the former City Reservoir (Possibly the second Mt. Royal?), The number of small dams, and all the businesses along the Falls that contributed to the pollution – gas, coal and oil factories, tannery, brewery, sugar refinery, lime kilns, oyster packing and taverns. Not to mention all the residences along the Falls. The City Dock and Block St. drawbridge I will write about later.

Second map – April 8, 1869. Revised Design for the Improvement of the Channel of Jones Falls and Drainage to Adjacent Portions of the City by H. Tyson. Note in upper left – The original design for this improvement will be found in the report made at the request of the Committee of Property holders of the Flooded District on the 31^st of July, 1868.

This map shows the flooded area in a darker tan with numbers indicating the depth of water in feet, i.e. 15’ at Saratoga and Holliday. The proposed Falls is in pink with proposed sewers in red. The Falls is green.

Interesting with this map are the cut-away views showing sewers of Brooklyn, NY and of London. Also the cut-away views of the new retaining walls with sewers running along the Falls. I especially like the Baltimore St Bridge drawing with boat. (They dredged the Falls a lot for the passage of ships to merchants. More on that later) Note the wooden pavements above the sewers in the lower diagrams to the left. Houses and businesses were also built over the sewers. If you are from Baltimore, note that Alice Ann St. was 2 words. Now it is Aliceanna. Canton Ave. is now Fleet St. The note/drawing on bottom shows bridges, then and proposed over the Falls.