Roads & Routes

The Jersey Shore lighthouse that stands in Sea Girt has been a guiding beacon for seafarers since the end of the nineteenth century. A revolutionary lens, designed by Frenchman Augustin-Jean Fresnel, captured the flickering flame of a burning wick and projected a unique flash that could be seen for fifteen miles. The genius of Fresnel's design, on full display at the lighthouse, impresses as much now as it did in the days of sail. Many colorful characters were put in command here, including a Civil War soldier, a pioneering woman, an inventor and, for one day, the twenty-year-old daughter of a keeper. Sea Girt Lighthouse played an important role in defending the coast during World War II, when U.S. Coast Guard troops stood watch in the tower and patrolled the beaches. After its decommissioning, the lighthouse served for over two decades as the town library and recreation center, but by 1981, it was at risk of being closed and sold. That's when a group of community members--the Sea Girt Lighthouse Citizens Committee--successfully fought to save and preserve the shore landmark. Today, the lighthouse is the community beacon, alive with activity and attracting visitors who flock from around the country and the world to experience its history.

According to Gov. Robert L. Ehrich Jr., "[The Maryland State
Fair] is an annual opportunity as Marylanders to come together to celebrate the history, tradition, and charm of our State during the best days of summer." The Maryland State Fair has continued the tradition of delighting Marylanders near and far since the late 1800s. Hosting governors to 4-H'ers, farm animals to farm hands, home arts to computer arts, the fair has always promised something for everyone. Fair favorites such as the sweet, intoxicating scent of warm cotton candy and the heartthundering excitement and majesty of Thoroughbred racing were as much a part of the Maryland State Fair 125 years ago as they are today. Readers can find it all in The Maryland State Fair: Celebrating 125 Years.

Delaware does not usually come to mind as one of America's great maritime states. Yet it has a long history of "firsts," innovations, and improvements in lighthouse construction and technology dating from the beginning of lighthouse history in the United States. One of the original six lighthouses built before the founding of this country was in Delaware. In the following years, major offshore lighthouses and an extensive system of range lights were established. At the height of its lighthouse history, Delaware had 27 manned light stations that warned mariners of the shoals and colliding currents at the mouth of the Delaware Bay and guided ships safely from the Atlantic Ocean to the inland ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia. Most of Delaware's lighthouses are gone now, preserved only in faded photographs and yellowed documents such as those collected here. The lights that remain struggle daily to survive the punishing hands of vandals and Mother Nature.

In the 1860s, Broad Street formed the western edge of downtown Philadelphia and was little more than railroad tracks and train depots.

However, with the building of Philadelphia City Hall in the 1870s, Broad Street rapidly developed into one of the city's premier streets. Rows of mansions sprung up south of Spruce Street, and the area north of Spruce became known as ""hotel row."" Four-story brownstones lined both sides of North Broad Street, interspersed with the mansions and gardens of the nouveau riche and punctuated by clubs, theaters, schools, churches, and synagogues. Philadelphia's Broad Street: South and North is the first photographic history devoted exclusively to Broad Street in its ""gilded age."" These vintage images provide a vivid reminder, if one is needed, of how dramatically the street has changed in the last one hundred years.

In Colonial times, as the Chesapeake Bay and larger rivers became vital shipping channels, the need arose to mark Maryland's dangerous shoals and waterways. Lighthouses sprang up throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, including wood-framed cottages placed upon screw pile foundations that stood offshore in the unforgiving waters. Most of these unique structures did not survive, lost tragically to ice that also occasionally claimed the lives of the keepers who faithfully tended them and rescued mariners in trouble. With the advent of electricity and GPS, many beacons succumbed to vandalism and neglect, leaving a fraction remaining.

The Adirondack region evolved over years from vast, impassable wilderness to a land of logging camps, tanneries, sawmills, and small settlements. By the end of the 19th century, the area grew again, becoming a tourist destination famed for its great hotels, quaint inns, cottages, and rustic cabins. The hotels and inns spread throughout the Adirondacks, beginning after the Civil War and continuing during the Gilded Age between World Wars I and II. The region drew the rich and famous, as well as workers and families escaping the polluted cities. This volume contains 200 vintage images of those famed accommodations that catered to years of Adirondack visitors. Most of the buildings seen in this book no longer exist, having been destroyed by fires, the wrecking ball, or simply forgotten over time. Adirondack Hotels and Inns provides a timeless look at the vacation retreats of the past.

Along the Route 100 Corridor Revisited documents the villages and townspeople along the Route 100 Corridor that were instrumental in the beginnings of many industries in the area. They also played a significant role in the formation of religious organizations, including the Mennonite, Catholic, and Schwenkfelders. Heavily populated by the Pennsylvania Dutch, industries such as furniture making, pottery, shoemaking, and tinsmithing all developed. Businesses known as hucksters serviced the nearby
communities by traveling via horse-drawn wagons. Travel back to the dirt roads, country doctors, and rural lifestyle through this collection of vintage photographs.

The Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909 honored the tercentennial of Henry Hudson's great find for the Dutch and the centennial of Robert Fulton's steamboat. These events anchored settlements along the Hudson River valley and helped to define this famous region. The celebration, which coincided with the heyday of the penny postcard, was a multi-week, cross-state parade and party. Among its many vintage images, Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909 features unique postcards from the magnificent event by blockbuster artist Bernhardt Wall, renowned publisher Raphael Tuck, and an official souvenir series from the Redfield Brothers.

Constructed in 1919, OHEKA CASTLE, Long Island's largest Gold Coast mansion, was once described by the New York Times as the "finest country house in America."

Enrico Caruso sang in its grand ballroom, and Arturo Toscanini lifted his baton to its soaring ceiling. Appearing as the mysterious mountaintop castle in the opening scenes of the film classic Citizen Kane, its majestic edifice and meticulous grounds continue to dazzle the screens of major Hollywood movies and television shows. It was a playground for the rich and famous of the Gilded Era, when heads of state, royalty, stage and screen stars, great comedians, and bohemians alike cavorted about its great halls. In subsequent years, it became home to an eclectic array of occupants, including New York City sanitation workers, World War II radio trainees, military school cadets, and eventually vandals and squatters. After its abandonment and descent into unrecognizable ruin, a Long Island developer with an appreciation for history reversed the adverse effects of time and neglect, transforming OHEKA into the largest restored home in America.

The Bucktail Highway, Pennsylvania Route 120, traverses over 100 miles of the commonwealth's historic northern tier, linking Ridgway in the west with Lock Haven in the east. The Bucktail Highway crosses the eastern continental divide east of St. Marys and closely follows the picturesque, deep valleys carved by Sinnemahoning Creek and the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Originally a Native American path and later a road that carried settlers west beyond the Allegheny Front, today's Bucktail Highway is a centerpiece of the Pennsylvania Wilds, a public-private initiative to promote and conserve the unique natural and historic resources of the region. Along the Bucktail Highway showcases over 200 vintage postcards profiling the cultural and natural history of the towns, forests, and waters linked by this scenic route from its beginnings as a westward trail, its growth as a commercial and industrial corridor in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and its recent emergence as a premier Pennsylvania scenic byway.

In 1947, The Crisfield Times published an editorial prompting an annual crab derby, a sort of Kentucky Derby spotlighting one of Crisfield's greatest natural resources: the Chesapeake Bay blue crab. The next year, the National Hard Crab Derby began. Since that brief crab race in front of the Crisfield Post Office in 1948, the annual Labor Day weekend event has grown into one of the most recognized festivals in the United States. The entire country participates each year through the Governor's Cup crab race, and all eyes are on contestants as they attempt to break world records in crab picking and boat docking. Champion chefs from throughout the Eastern Seaboard hone their skills during the annual crab cooking contest. Skiff races recall days of the past when work boats sped in from Tangier Sound to sell their day's catch to the area's seafood packers. And Crisfield may be the only city in America where little girls grow up with the dream of someday being called Miss Crustacean!

In the mid-1800s, a quaint fishing village, called Nauvoo at the time, was the largest fishery on the New Jersey seacoast. By the end of the 19th century, this fishing village had grown into the flourishing seaside resort of Sea Bright. Luxurious hotels like the Normandie-by-the-Sea, Sea Bright Inn, and the Octagon House were built, transforming the town into a haven for the wealthy, who built elegant cottages along its coast. The famous Pannaci Hotel and Restaurant became known as the "Delmonico of Sea Bright." Today Sea Bright continues to draw vacationers and residents alike with its glistening water and beautiful sandy beaches.

Light boats, light vessels, lightships--before radar, depth-finders and satellite-guided navigation, mariners relied on floating lighthouses that lingered offshore as warning beacons in perilous waters.

Moored near shifting shoals and treacherous reefs, lightships remained on station during all weather conditions and played a vital role in keeping America's waterways safe for navigation. From 1820 to 1985, light vessels warned of treacherous seas and pointed the way to safe harbors. In Lightships, author Wayne Kirklin chronicles the eighty-five ships that protected the mid-Atlantic coast and the heyday of these special craft. From New York Harbor to the southernmost edge of North Carolina's notorious Cape Fear, Kirklin details the unsung role this fleet played in keeping America's merchant marines safe. Read Lightships to discover a forgotten but vital element of American maritime history.

The White Horse Pike may not be America's most famous road, but it is one of the most storied. Originally a migratory footpath of the Leni-Lenape, this timeless 60-mile route from the Delaware to the Atlantic has been followed by everyone from Walt Whitman to the Jersey Devil. It has served as a stagecoach highway, a toll road, and a pattern for railroads. The White Horse Pike depicts the heyday of this still popular
city-to-shore road, the most direct route from Camden to Atlantic City.

Once a place of war, then a place of health, and finally, preservation, Fort DuPont has had a long and interesting history.

Fort DuPont is named in honor of Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont and located on the Reeden Point tract, land initially granted to Henry Ward in 1675. The first fortification built was the Ten Gun Battery during the Civil War, a heavily armed earthwork fortification dedicated to protecting the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal--as Sgt. Bishop Crumrine wrote in 1864, "These guns command the channel and could blow to atoms any vessel rash enough to attempt to pass.'? In the decades to follow, the battery at Delaware City was gradually modernized into a formidable military post that remained active through World War II. Declared surplus in post-war peacetime, the site reopened in 1948 as the Governor Bacon Health Center, and by 1996, over 300 acres were reestablished as Fort DuPont State Park.