At an outstanding 92,052 square miles, Baltimore is the largest city and cultural center in the state of Maryland. The city is packed with 620,961 residents, while the Baltimore Metropolitan Area has just under 2.4 million. The city had the second largest port that handled immigrants and manufacturing products. Clearly this was the typical city full of vast buildings and yellow cabs around every corner. The only problem seemed to be that your daily dose of mother nature was no where to be found. A decline in manufacturing along the coast of the United States lead the city to move the city into a service-oriented economy. Big construction projects such as the Maryland Science Center, Baltimore Ravens football team and stadium, Baltimore Orioles baseball team and stadium, Harborplace, and the National Aquarium were erected within the Inner Harbor area.
The solution to Baltimore's need for a taste of nature was brought in when the construction of the National Aquarium was finished in 1981. Located at 501 E. Pratt Street, the building is a huge glass enclosed square. Constructed by Peter Chermayeff of Peter Chermayeff LLC, this building is separated into three different buildings: Pier 3 Pavilion, Pier 4 Pavilion, and the Glass Pavilion. It holds an outstanding 16,500 specimens which are scattered throughout the dolphin display, rooftop rainforest, central ray display, and the multi-story shark tank.
Today the aquarium drives the most tourists to visit Baltimore with attracting 1.5 million people a year. In 2006, Coastal Living name the National Aquarium the #1 aquarium in America.
On a personal note, I have been to this amazing collection of ecosystems and would recommend to all that find themselves in Baltimore. At a very reasonable entrance fee, you have an unlimited amount of time to spend with animals seen all across the world. It's something you must experience to truly understand my testimonial.
- John Kenyon
No comments:
Post a Comment