City preview · BALTIMORE

Baltimore connects harbor water to space

At the mouth of Jones Falls, rolling eyes watch over a trash boom and conveyor; solar power assists when the current runs low. At Mount Clare, a turntable still faces the roundhouse stalls. Pennsylvania Avenue musicians fill a mosaic at the top of a Metro escalator. Beside Homewood, teams schedule observations for Hubble and Webb. These four stops connect harbor water, the first B&O rail line, a Black entertainment corridor, and the daily work behind orbiting telescopes.

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Mr. Trash Wheel · Editorial illustration, not a historical photo

From harbor water to telescope schedules

Harbor water, railroads, jazz, and telescopes

Four complete stories and their public sources are shown here; the rest of the collection is in the app.

01 · Mr. Trash Wheel

The trash wheel with googly eyes

Behind those eyes, a conveyor lifts harbor trash into a dumpster.

Mr. Trash Wheel was installed in 2014 where Jones Falls meets the harbor. Floating booms guide debris toward a conveyor; the current turns the wheel, and solar power helps when the flow slows. Waterfront Partnership named the machine and added its rotating eyes. The character draws attention to the plastic and branches that wash from city streets and storm drains into the harbor.

Source: explore.baltimoreheritage.org

02 · B&O Railroad Museum

The railroad began at this roundhouse

In the 1820s, Baltimore merchants bet rail could beat the canal.

In the 1820s, westward canals threatened Baltimore's inland trade, so the city's merchants backed another route. B&O's first line began at Mount Clare, which soon combined locomotive building, repairs, passenger service, and freight. A turntable at the center of the roundhouse rotated engines toward different work bays. The radial tracks still keep their original angles today.

Source: explore.baltimoreheritage.org

03 · Upton/Avenue Market Metro Station

A performance waits at the top of the escalator

A mosaic of Pennsylvania Avenue's musicians fills the escalator landing.

Romare Bearden created Baltimore Uproar for Upton Metro, assembling singers and musicians from Pennsylvania Avenue into a wall-size mosaic. It waits at the top of the escalator, directly in each arriving rider's path. The avenue once formed a Black entertainment corridor lined with theaters and clubs. The station takes commuters below ground; the mosaic carries that street life down with them.

Source: explore.baltimoreheritage.org

04 · Space Telescope Science Institute

Space telescopes keep their schedule here

Teams in this building decide when Hubble and Webb observe each target.

The Space Telescope Science Institute stands beside Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus and is operated by AURA. It runs Hubble's science operations and supports science and mission operations for the James Webb Space Telescope. Teams solicit proposals, schedule observations, calibrate data, and maintain archives. The telescopes work in space; many of the decisions and data services happen in Baltimore.

Source: stsci.edu Source: stsci.edu

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