Misplaced Pages

#340659

22-1046: The Northwest Branch Trail is a 21-mile (34 km) multi-use (hiking, biking, equestrian) trail that follows the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC . It is part of the Rachel Carson Greenway and the Anacostia Tributary Trail System . It runs between the Layhill neighborhood of Silver Spring and Bladensburg in Montgomery and Prince George's County , Maryland, USA. The trail starts in Bladensburg , Prince George's County, Maryland, and runs north following

44-459: A 1770 frame meeting house. Quakers first began worshiping in the area circa 1753. The site is near a fresh-water spring that gave its name to the community. The location of this meeting house in the village of Sandy Spring helped to define the geographic extent of the greater Sandy Spring neighborhood of the time, comprising those areas from which members of the Meeting could travel to and from

66-674: A horse-drawn buggy and later an automobile. He founded Montgomery General Hospital in February 1920. Dr. Bird and his wife died in an automobile accident in Alabama on October 25, 1959. An insurance salesman and auctioneer named Delmas Wood started the Sandy Spring Museum in 1980 because he thought Sandy Spring's history was gradually being lost as older residents died. Wood wanted a place to preserve antique furniture, farm equipment, photographs, paintings, and documents of

88-755: A small portion of land in Washington, D.C. , is 53.5 square miles (139 km ), with a resident population of about 254,000. The middle section of the Northwest Branch is referred to as the Rachel Carson Environmental Area . It flows through a small gorge underneath the Capital Beltway between Colesville Road and Adelphi Mill . Located at the north end of the Northwest Branch Trail , near

110-661: Is a 21.5-mile-long (34.6 km) free-flowing stream in Montgomery County and Prince George's County , Maryland . It is a tributary of the Anacostia River , which flows to the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay . The headwaters of the Northwest Branch are located near the community of Sandy Spring . The stream flows southward for 21.5 miles (34.6 km) to its confluence with

132-452: Is the most beautiful place around here. Mother scrambled among the cliffs in her riding habit, very pretty and most interesting. The roads were good and some of the scenery really beautiful. We were gone four hours, half an hour being occupied scrambling in the gorge. The Northwest Branch Trail Corridor was officially renamed as the Rachel Carson Greenway in 2004. Northwest Branch Anacostia River Northwest Branch Anacostia River

154-583: The Anacostia Tributary Trail System in Prince George's County. Northwest Branch crosses the geological fall line between the Piedmont and Atlantic coastal plain regions, which forms a small waterfall on the stream 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south of the Burnt Mills Dam parks. This area was a favorite spot of Theodore Roosevelt . Several species of native anadromous fish spawn in

176-720: The Northeast Branch near Bladensburg to form the main stem of the Anacostia. The watershed in Montgomery County includes portions of the communities of Norwood, Bel Pre Manor, Colesville , Layhill, Glenmont , Wheaton , Hillandale , White Oak , Silver Spring , Kemp Mill , Four Corners, Woodmoor and Takoma Park . The Prince George's County portion of the watershed includes Adelphi , Langley Park , University Park , Chillum , Hyattsville , Avondale and Brentwood . The total watershed area, including

198-728: The Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River , ending in the Layhill neighborhood of Montgomery County, Maryland. It connects with a number of other trails including the Sligo Creek Trail in Carole Highlands . The lower third of the trail, which is paved, runs 6 miles (9.7 km) from Bladensburg to the Prince George's-Montgomery county line in Adelphi near New Hampshire Avenue and Piney Branch Road, then continues approximately 1.26 miles into Montgomery County. The paved trail then terminates around trail mile 7.26, at

220-401: The "Torrent and Gorge", section is the geological fall line between the Piedmont and Atlantic coastal plain regions, which forms a small waterfall . Mother and I had a most lovely ride the other day, way up beyond Sligo Creek to what is called North-west Branch , at Burnt Mills, where is a beautiful gorge, deep and narrow, with great boulders and even cliffs. Excepting Great Falls it

242-603: The Burnt Mills Dam trailhead on Colesville Road and Kemp Mill Road near Wheaton Regional Park the trail runs along the west side of the Northwest Branch creek. This is a natural multi-use surface trail. On the east side of the creek is the Rachel Carson Greenway trail, a hiker-only trail. Theodore Roosevelt considered the portion of the trail 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south of the Burnt Mills Dam parks one of his favorite places. The rocky area known as

SECTION 10

#1732798245341

264-444: The Northwest Branch watershed, including alewife ( Alosa pseudoharengus ) and blueback herring ( Alosa aestivalis ). The total stream channel length of Northwest Branch and all tributaries is 75 miles (121 km). Sandy Spring, Maryland Sandy Spring is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County , Maryland , United States. Sandy Spring's boundaries are roughly defined as Brooke Road and Dr. Bird Road to

286-489: The Sandy Spring area, including "Charley Forest" in 1716, "Charley Forest Enlarged", "Higham", and "Discovery." Bradford sold off large parts of these properties, but Snowden's son-in-law, James Brooke, later bought up the original Charley Forest land as well as other land in the area, eventually owning over 22,000 acres (90 km ) by the 1760s. The Quakers built their current brick meeting house in 1817, replacing

308-535: The Sandy Spring area. Florence Virginia Barrett Lehman also helped found the museum. The museum was originally located in the basement of a Sandy Spring National Bank branch in Olney . In October 1986, it moved to Tall Timbers, a brick four-story Colonial house that had been the home of Gladys Brooke Tumbleson, who had died earlier that year. Tumbleson descended from the Brooke family, for which nearby Brookeville

330-672: The county's third public high school. A Quaker school, Sandy Spring Friends School , was established in 1961. In 1967 a Quaker retirement community, Friends House, was founded next to the school. The Sandy Spring Library opened behind the Sandy Spring Store in 1842. The Farmer's Club of Sandy Spring was established in 1844 to discuss preferable methods of farming. A 1901 Department of Labor study documented hundreds of residents who trace their lineage 125 years to free black families. Benjamin Hallowell (educator) (1799–1887)

352-528: The home of noted environmental author Rachel Carson , it is deliberately left rustic and unimproved. The majority of the Northwest Branch stream valley is a riparian buffer , protected as parkland by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC). The Rachel Carson Greenway planned by M-NCPPC will extend the Northwest Branch Trail into northern Montgomery County as an unimproved hiking trail, connecting to

374-604: The meeting house by horse or carriage in one day, arriving home before sunset. The greater Sandy Spring neighborhood thus includes the current communities of Brookeville, Olney, Norbeck, Ednor, Brighton, and other communities within a six-mile radius of the meeting house. In the late 19th century the community started a local school called the Sherwood Academy. This school was turned over to the Government of Montgomery County in 1906 to become Sherwood High School ,

396-458: The north and west, Ednor Road to the south, and New Hampshire Avenue to the east. The United States Census Bureau combines Sandy Spring with the nearby community of Ashton to form the census-designated place of Ashton-Sandy Spring , and all census data are tabulated for this combined entity. The community was founded by Quakers who arrived in the early 18th century searching for land where they could grow tobacco and corn . One of

418-535: The southern terminus of the Rachel Carson Greenway and the Capital Beltway. Once the trail crosses the county line it runs to the Burnt Mills Dam . The dam is the site of the former Camp Woodrow Wilson , the two Georgian Revival pump houses of the Robert B. Morse Filtration Plant , and is now the Burnt Mills Dam parks (East and West). From the dam the trail proceeds north to Wheaton Regional Park . Between

440-452: The very early land owners in the Sandy Spring area was Richard Snowden , who patented (purchased) the 1,000 acres (4 km ) "Snowden's Manor" in 1715. Snowden gradually enlarged his property with additional land purchases over the next few decades until it was surveyed at over 9,000 acres (36 km ) as "Snowden's Manor Enlarged" in 1743. Another important early landowner, Major John Bradford, had patented over 2,000 acres (8 km ) in

462-862: Was a prominent Quaker in 19th century Sandy Spring. As an educator, he taught at Fair Hill in Olney, then taught in Virginia. He lived at Rockland in Olney. His farm is now the Hallowell housing development. He briefly served as the first president of the Maryland Agricultural College (later to become the University of Maryland .) He was integral in forming the Sandy Spring Farmer's Club and the Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Dr Jacob Wheeler Bird

SECTION 20

#1732798245341

484-634: Was born in Anne Arundel County in 1885. He attended St. John's College in Annapolis , and he earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 1907. In 1909, Dr. Bird moved to Sandy Spring to set up his medical practice on the road now named for him, Dr. Bird Road. He also established the first hospital located in Montgomery County, now called Montgomery General Hospital . During his fifty-year medical career, Dr. Bird made house calls to his patients, at first in

#340659