{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/bv79s1mt1g/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["The Day the Traffic Stood Still\n, 1962-03-28"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/053/original/cropped-marmia-logo-copy1.png?1586173104","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["https://marmia.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/25500"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["1962-03-28 (Broadcast)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["This is episode #13 of Focal Point about mass transit in Baltimore. It also features the Blizzard of Baltimore (1958). It was narrated by Ted Jaffee, directed by Leonard Crossman, and written by Gwinn Owens. (Scope and Content Note)","Be advised that this video may contain sensitive, triggering, and offensive language and content. (Content warning)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["1 U-matic"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["WJZ-UNKN-204-001 (Identifier)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Series Title"]},"value":{"en":["Focal Point"]}}],"summary":{"en":["This is episode #13 of Focal Point about mass transit in Baltimore. It also features the Blizzard of Baltimore (1958). It was narrated by Ted Jaffee, directed by Leonard Crossman, and written by Gwinn Owens.","Be advised that this video may contain sensitive, triggering, and offensive language and content."]},"provider":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["MARMIA"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["MARMIA"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/053/original/cropped-marmia-logo-copy1.png?1586173104","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/206/390/small/open-uri20230817-109546-p9p9f_1692300072.jpg?1692300073","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - open-uri20230817-109546-p9p9f.mp4"]},"duration":1632.908,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/206/390/small/open-uri20230817-109546-p9p9f_1692300072.jpg?1692300073","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-marmia.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/206/390/original/open-uri20230817-109546-p9p9f.mp4?1692300071","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":1632.908,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_WJZ-UNKN-204-001.mp4 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Oh. February 1958, one of the worst blizzards of the century strikes Baltimore. Retail stores lose $30 million. That was the day the traffic stood still on that stormy day in 1958. Nature dramatically proved what happens to the economy of a city when its people can't travel easily from home to work and back. If this vital circulation of people is cut off or even slowed down the city and everybody around, it is in trouble. In Baltimore, some people go to work on streetcars, others when their way on busses, but few go on foot. But most people go to work in private automobile. That's the source of the problem. Private automobiles, 16 feet long, carrying just one or two people. Every driver who makes that decision to give up public transit and ride to work in his own car participating in the greatest transportation revolution in history, the private automobile, the family car has altered forever the structure of the American city. As a result of this revolution, there is, in areas like Baltimore, new health and vigorous new growth. And there is blight and decay. Once. It was much simpler. Throughout most of history, the city existed primarily as a marketplace, a seat of government, and as a refuge when the countryside was under attack. Most people lived and worked on farms and the city was the place they came to sell the products of their toil in the field. The only permanent city dwellers were the public officials and the small artisans. They usually lived where they work. In the 19th century industrial revolution, manufacturing began to supplant farming as the cheap employer of labor. The factories brought far greater numbers of people to the cities. On the heels of the Industrial Revolution came the railroad.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=33.16,171.9"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Commuter trains made it possible for the wealthier people to live on the outskirts of the city. Suburban settlements clustered around each railroad station, and the train shuttled conveniently back and forth to and from the city. But far more important than the train was the electric trolley car known in Baltimore as the streetcar. It provided the same kind of convenience that people of more modest means suburban settlements sprang up along the main arteries that carried streetcar line. But despite the commuter train and the streetcar, the organization of the city was basically simple. There was a mass movement into the downtown area in the morning and out again in the evening. And during the day, there was a lighter, but continuing in and out movement of shoppers. Of course, in Baltimore, there were supplementary shopping areas in the suburb, but downtown remained the principal place to conduct business to buy and sell. Downtown also retained its importance as the principal center of culture and entertainment, a place to learn and a place to have fun. This concentration and variety made the heart of a great city the mecca of excitement, opportunity and inspiration. And yet, in the middle of the 20th century, the golden age of the city seemed to be drawing to a close. As recently as 30 years ago, there was little reason to suspect the hearts of many cities would begin to falter. This was because no one reckoned with the impact of a small vehicle with four wheels and a new kind of engine. No one reckoned with the automobile. Within a generation, the automobile evolved an expensive playboy of the rich, too. The indispensable adjunct of every true blue 100% American family. For the first time in history, a man had developed a fast, dependable and comfortable method of conveying himself from his own front door to his destination, or at least from the nearest parking lot to his destination.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=173.4,326.35"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"He no longer had to worry about waiting in the rain or choking on his cornflakes. It was not to miss the 815 or important. He no longer had to live within walking distance of the railroad station or the streetcar line. He could start looking for that little place in the suburb with the help of the automobile. Millions of Americans made the dream come true. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm. In this quest for suburban living, new houses soon filled out the empty spaces between the ribbon. Developments began to spill out into the neighboring subdivisions. In Baltimore's case, it was neighboring an Arundel and Baltimore counties that were first blanketed by suburban sprawl. Now, Howard, Harford and Carroll counties are beginning to feel the effects of the overflow from the city and the suburban boom turned out to be something less than a blessing. Traveling downtown became an increasing headache, but the worst effect of the automobile invasion was on public transit, especially in Baltimore, where public transit means only busses and streetcars. Every time a commuter decided to stop riding the bus and switch to a private car, he took a fare paying passenger away from the transit company. But he also added another car to the overcrowded streets, which made the busses and streetcars slower. Slow public transit caused still more people to switch to private automobile. The jams got to automobile because there was no other acceptable way to travel. Yet all the blame for the decline in public transit can't be put on traffic jam. Commuter trains, which ran on their own right of way, vanished completely. The resident of the outer suburbs had been spoiled by his automobile. He no longer would accept the means of transportation that required his presence at a railroad station at a specific time, then deposited him perhaps a mile from his office, for better or worse.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=327.73,456.05"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The breadwinner and his family chose the car as their means of getting around. While it's true that getting downtown was a problem, the family buggy was ideal for negotiating in the spacious suburbs. People responded to this convenience and business responded to the people. Downtown. Department stores built branches and giant suburban shopping centers. With the department stores came the dress shop, the ten cent store, the hairdresser, the supermarket, the bowling alley, the dentist, the movie theater all surrounded by acres of asphalt, neatly herringbone into parking spaces. Soon, industry joined the suburban migration in its quest for a place to put the employees cars. People hailed the new suburban paradise where the automobile was king. What if the automobile was king? It ruled a shaky kingdom. The suburbs were there because the city was there and the heart of the city was dying. Traffic was choking its arteries. Public transit was disappearing. Business and industry were moving reluctantly to the suburbs. Downtown office buildings were left half vacant. Movie theaters closed their doors forever. Tax revenues from downtown dwindle away, and the city government became the poor relation of the surrounding counties. It is difficult for those who live in the Brighton suburbs to associate their neighborhood prosperity with the health of downtown. It is important for a fundamentally simple reason. It is the one point equidistant from all of the suburbs. It is the one place that can concentrate enough people to justify a variety of services. For example, hot Spots Department store can build a branch store in thousand. A great boon to the people of that neighborhood. But it is of no use to the people in Glen Burnie on the other side of the city. Social cone has a store inherent dale, but this is not available to the people of Pikesville.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=456.89,576.89"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Stewart has a store on the York road. No use to Catonsville. The company has a store in Northwood that's out of reach to the people of Dundalk. But downtown, the shoppers can find Butler's local town, Stewart's and the Hecht Company, all within a block of each other as it is with shopping. So it is with almost every kind of business. Only downtown is within reach of everyone. And no one has to be convinced that for downtown to thrive, you have to be able to get there. But for a long time, most people thought that even though the automobile had created the problem. More automobiles could solve the problem. The sort of hair of the dog remedy. If automobiles can't get downtown fast enough to build expressways so they can get there faster. A lot of cities drive it, but when the cars get downtown, what do you do with them? You build parking lots, of course, and more expressway and more parking lot. In some cities, this situation reached a point of absurdity. Los Angeles went all out for expressways that the electric transit system was allowed to die. This is a map of downtown Los Angeles, and this is the space devoted to parking lots. Not much room for anything else. The whole country became so expressway conscious that it was difficult to get support for an alternative such as a rapid transit system. Then the federal government really stacked the deck by providing huge grants for expressways. But even while the Jones Files Expressway was being built a few feet away, the Pennsylvania was pulling up one of the tracks on its old parkeston and local line. The Baltimore Transit Company's service was cut to the bare minimum. Even those who would have preferred a bus or a train switched to their own car and there was no other way to go.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=578.24,705.59"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"No one can put his finger on the date when there was a shift in attitude on the part of planners, political leaders and just plain people. But there was a shift in attitude, and it now has changed the whole picture. More and more people have come to agree that automobiles alone can't solve the transportation needs of a great city. Expressways are still important, but if we are to be completely smothered in automobiles, there must be radical measures to restore public transit system. And radical measures are being taken all over the United States. For example, the San Francisco Bay Area let one rapid transit system die, and I will ask voters to approve a loan of $1,000,000,000 to build an entire new system. WASHINGTON Planning a $400 million system of subways and rail lines. Chicago ran a rapid transit line down the middle of what was first proposed to be just another expressway. Philadelphia provided a public subsidy to assure the continuance of the system of commuter lines operated by the Pennsylvania and the Redding Railroad. None of these cities is involved in halfway measures. All of them recognize the need for a transportation system balance between automobiles and public transit. And they also know that no commuter is going to abandon his cherished automobile unless he is provided with a means of transportation that is, first faster than his car. Second, more convenient. Third, more comfortable. What does this mean to Baltimore? It means that no one is likely to stop driving his car if the Baltimore Transit Company adds a few busses here and there under present conditions. A transit bus sharing the road with automobiles cannot be faster, more convenient or more comfortable. Therefore, it cannot do the job in preparation for its vast mass transit system.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=709.81,832.56"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The Washington area has created a metropolitan area transit commission that is remarkable in that it serves not just one political jurisdiction, but five of them include the District of Columbia and four counties and two states. This points up what every city is now facing, that mass transit is a regional problem, never a problem of the central city alone. Well, the Baltimore area, the Maryland General Assembly in 1961, created a Metropolitan Transit authority. This is probably the most important milestone passed thus far in the road back to adequate mass transportation. The only drawback to the MTA law are the weaknesses built into it by counties resistant to its jurisdiction. Most of Baltimore City's legislators wanted the authority and supported it. Some of Baltimore County's legislators accepted it only after its powers were severely restricted. And Anne Arundel County, under the leadership of State Senator Louis and Fifth stayed out altogether. Nevertheless, the new Metropolitan Transit Authority has the sufficient power to lead the way in the creation of a mass transit system. Here's what the law's principal author, former delegate Francis X Gallagher, thinks of the MTA is prospect. I believe that the creation of the Metropolitan Transit Authority was the first necessary and indispensable step in obtaining more adequate mass transportation for the Baltimore metropolitan area. For the first time, we have an agency which can concentrate on the single problem, and we have an agency which considers the problem on an area wide basis, rather than being bound in by artificial political subdivisions, so long as private ownership can continue to do some kind of a satisfactory job, the bill will enhance its opportunities to do so. In my opinion, however, private ownership will ultimately be supplanted by public ownership because the people of the city of Baltimore are going to come to the realization that over the long haul it is virtually impossible for private ownership to provide the kind of transportation the city desires and needs.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=833.4,967.27"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"When the people of this metropolitan area conclude that adequate mass transit is as necessary as fire protection and police protection as water and sewer, then we are going to have the public ownership that, in my opinion, will become necessary in a short period of time. Most experts agree with Mr. Gallagher that public transit systems cannot pay their own way. They must be supported by the taxpayers as a necessary city service. Philadelphia taxpayers agreed to subsidize their city's rail commuter service because they realized that the alternative no service at all would cost them a lot more money in the long run. What are Baltimore's chances of establishing a mass transit system and restoring rail commuter service? Most people agree that the city has some striking advantages that should make mass transit successful. It also has some disadvantages. These disadvantages are based primarily on the fact that Baltimore is a widely dispersed city and in recent years has become more so. Baltimore has commuters and shoppers don't all serve downtown in fast numbers as they do in Washington and Philadelphia. But it doesn't necessarily follow that the situation today is the situation tomorrow. The tide has finally turned in downtown Baltimore. Crisis is often the mother of a program, and it was a real crisis that hit in the mid 1950s. The situation called for drastic action. The Greater Baltimore Committee took drastic action when it proposed tearing out the heart of the city and rebuilding it. Four years ago, Charles Center was a wild eyed dream. Today, it is turning into steel and concrete. The magnificent one, Charles Center Office building is rising and will be followed by numerous other structures, including a theater as its designers had predicted. Charles Center is revitalizing the area on its fringes on the western edge of Charles Center.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=968.26,1103.9"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The city's new housing, along with automobile traffic at an average speed of 13 miles per hour. Then what can Baltimore do to bring people in from its surrounding suburbs quickly into the downtown section? Allen Constant, a man who has made an application of studying railroads, believes he has the answer, with other studies showing a definite trend back to rails as a means of rapid mass transportation. Baltimore is uniquely fortunate to have a network of rails that offers the basis for immediate steps to bring relief to the rest. COMMUTER Even while the planners are dreaming about long range plans. Basically, we must face the fact that the city needs good commuter service to support the rehabilitation work now in progress. This commuter service is just another community service and as such should be planned and supported on the same basis as other vital community needs. It is also important to keep in mind that with railroads retrenching and abandoning lines, there must be speedy local action or else other lines will vanish, as did the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, whose right of ways our city fathers saw fit to turn down. Today, this Montauk path could be used as a very valuable transportation corridor. Existing rail lines could serve communities like Coffeyville and ammonium rider would Ruxton. GLINTON Owings Mills, Pikesville, Silverado Park, Heron, Dale, Glen Burnie, Ferndale and even the Friendship Airport. Just a quick look at these communities indicates that they lie in some of the heaviest growth areas in the nation. In the city, we find that these rail lines easily connect to the Howard Street tunnel, which would permit the handling of thousands of people daily under the very heart of the city. The area is within easy walking distance of the subway stations along Howard Street would be the shopping district, the office buildings, the new trial center, and right alongside of the new civic center.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=1104.59,1249.96"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Mr. Constance is not the first man to propose a mass transit system based on existing railroad lines, but he is one of the most persistent and persuasive advocates of this solution. What the commuter go back to riding the railroads. If the train started running tomorrow morning, the chances are that he would not. If he had to pay a fare calculated on returning a profit to the railroad and if he worked downtown, he would never be satisfied to get off the train at far off Camden Station Pelham Station or Calvert Station. Those who have studied the Baltimore situation seem to agree that to restore a railroad service, there would have to be first public subsidies to keep fares at a reasonable rate. Second parking lots at suburban stations. Third. Modern high speed equipment. Port city terminals closer to downtown than any of the existing station. Railroad men fighting harder times than they have ever known, seemed to make it a rule not to take the initiative in proposing mass transit solutions. But there is one exception to the rule is James Easter, president of the small Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad. Like Allen Constant, James Easter has alerted Baltimore to the remarkable existing railroad lines this past December. While cynical executives of big railroads laughed. Mr. Easter restored commuter service on a small portion of his line from Heron Down Mall Shopping Center to Camden Station. After three weeks, the service was suspended. Yet in terms of the lessons learned, it came extremely close to success. It established a yardstick of cost and public acceptance and shed light on problems that will arise in future effort. Mr. Easter proved that with a little extra help, commuter service can be restored. More important, Mr. Easter also pointed out, as had Allan Constant, that a vast rapid transit network could be established in Baltimore.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=1253.08,1374.95"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Running through the heart of downtown without buying a single mile of new right of way. Despite what seems to be an obvious asset for mass transit, Baltimore's rail lines have been ignored. There has been so little interest in rail service that one abandoned right of way. The old Maryland and Pennsylvania line has been lost forever since neither Baltimore City nor Baltimore County showed any interest in buying the right of way it was sold or reverted back to its original pattern. Symbolic of this total lack of interest. Is the supermarket on Charles Street in what run? It sits right on the old man part, right of way. If the trains were to run again now, they'd go right through the fresh vegetable counter. Apparently no public official and no railroad man except James Easter had the courage to make the first move. Of course, no one familiar with the whole picture wants to stop building expressways. The automobile is here to stay. What today's transportation experts seek is a healthy balance between rapid transit and automobile traffic. Here, they may very likely be a wedding of those old rivals, the expressway and the mass transit system. Baltimore's East-West Expressway is badly needed to handle automobile traffic. But what may finally emerge as an East-West expressway that also carries high speed busses and special lanes with the Metropolitan Transit Authority now functioning with Charles Center and the new Civic Center Auditorium certain to draw thousands of people, downtown Baltimore is nearing the hour of decision. The necessity for an intelligent expressway building program and the parallel development of mass transit has never been more obvious, and the chance of success has never been greater. But weary Baltimoreans subjected to survey after survey, study after study can't be blamed if they refuse to get excited by anything less than action.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=1375.85,1514.72"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"We could subsidize commuter service on one of the existing railroad lines. This experiment would cost peanuts compared to the price of an expressway. And it could be done tomorrow. And.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390#t=1517.06,1557.9"}]},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["English [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/105634/file/206390/transcript/48992/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"subtitling","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/048/992/original/open-uri20230817-2092-o9qx3f?1692308585","format":"text/vtt","language":"en"},"target":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/048/992/original/open-uri20230817-2092-o9qx3f?1692308585"}]}]}]}