Gwynns Falls Valley
Baltimore, United States
As the Baltimore and Frederick-Town Turnpike twisted and turned westward, it passed one of the centers of early city industry. A three mile long millrace on the Gwynns Falls provided power for over twenty mills that sawed wood, ground flour, wove cloth and smelted iron. By 1850, brewers, butchers and a hairbrush factory had moved in. Country beer gardens became getaways on Sunday when city saloons were closed<br><br>By 1900, the Gwynns Falls’ industries were moving away. Baltimore’s Municipal Art Society hired the Olmsted Brothers, famous landscape architects, to plan a farsighted regional park system including many of Baltimore’s stream valleys. The Ellicott Driveway, opened on the old millrace during the First World War, brought motorists, bikers and hikers back to nature, as the Olmsteds envisioned. Almost a hundred years later, leisure travelers on the Historic National Road can connect with the old “Driveway,” now a part of the 15-mile Gwynns Falls Trail. The park is now living up to its century-old promise to put hikers and bikers on old roads.