... as automobiles became more popular, Barclay Street got the
bridge treatment too.
That must have happened sometime after the 1901 date of the Smithsonian
photo at page top. If only there were a way to know exactly which year...
Plans for the Howard Street Tunnel expansion call for this Barclay Street
bridge to be removed rather than replaced.
Barclay got a bridge, in part, because it led to Oriole Park, seen at the top
of the 1926/1927 aerial photo at left. Barclay is the street that runs
vertically near the middle of the photo, with B&O horizontally at bottom.
Careful alignment of this photo with a current one lets us measure the park's
dimensions: 275 feet down the left field line, 400 to center, and 320 down the
right field line. The Orioles who played here would claim seven consecutive
International League championships from 1919 to 1925.
This Oriole Park, number five in a series of six so far, had opened in 1914 as
part of the then-new Federal League. The Federal League endured only two
seasons, but related subsequent litigation yielded an antitrust exemption in
1922 that is still enjoyed by Major League Baseball.
Link:
Oriole Park fire in 1944
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