Federal funding for historic tributes

Recently, there have been a couple announcements that our city and state are getting federal funding for two separate historic tributes.

The first piece of news, announced yesterday, is that Baltimore acquired nearly $1.6 million in federal funding to add an additional line to the Charm City Circulator. The new line—to be finished within the next year—will take riders from downtown to Fort McHenry and it will be called the "Star Spangled Banner" route. The idea is that the new line will ease congestion surrounding the War of 1812 bicentennial celebrations next year.

Additionally, today Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to announce that Maryland received $8.5 million for the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Cambridge. The new center will unite a state park and a national historic park honoring Tubman, who conducted the Underground Railroad and was born in Dorchester County.

[Image: courtesy of nrdc.org]