The Chandler Wobble

Latitude Observatory Park

The Chandler Wobble is a small motion in the Earth's axis of rotation relative to the Earth's surface, which was discovered by American astronomer, Seth Carlo Chandler, Jr., in 1891. It is one of several wobbling motions that ...

Forty-Five Star Flag

Bicentennial Flag Memorial

The United States emerged from the ordeal of the Civil War with deep gulfs of mistrust and bitterness. Reconstruction was lengthy. Then during the 1870's the natural wealth of the country, the industrious people, further expansion beyond the ...

The Meridian Mark Pier and Geodetic Survey Monuments

Latitude Observatory Park

The Gaithersburg International Latitude Observatory is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been declared a National Historic Landmark. The designation includes the Observatory, the Meridian Mark Pier, and the five monuments.

About 200 feet to ...

History and Purpose of the Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory

Latitude Observatory Park

The Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory was constructed in 1899 as one of the original four stations selected by the International Geodetic Association to carry out systematic observations to measure the variations in latitude cause by the Earth's wobble on ...

Thirty-Four Star Flag (1861)

Bicentennial Flag Memorial

Between 1818 and 1861 no less than 13 changes were made in the Stars and Stripes as a result of the westward expansion. With the admission of Kansas in 1861, the [S]tars and [S]tripes became a thirty-four star ...

Stars and Stripes (1818)

There was considerable concern that the addition of a new stripe for each new state would create hopeless confusion. Therefore, Congress established the still current law that provided that after July 4, 1818 the flag would show thirteen stripes and ...

Flag of Fifteen Stripes

Bicentennial Flag Memorial

Like the new nation, the first Stars and Stripes would see fuller development with the passage of time. Under the much-debated Articles of Confederation of 1781, it was agreed that America would create self-governing States in the western ...

Edwin Franko Goldman

1878 – 1956

A Landmark of American Music

The Guggenheim Concerts by the world renowned Goldman Band were played here “on the mall” every summer from 1923 to 1969.

Presented by the

National Music Council and Exxon

[Seal of the ...

Old Glassworks

On this site, the first glass factory west of the Monongahela River was established in 1805 through the stimulating influence of Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson. Glass was made here until 1849.

Marker is at the intersection ...

Monongahela College

This was first Baptist college in western Pennsylvania. It was begun by Ten Mile Baptist Assn. in 1867, opened in 1869, and in 1871 chartered by legislature. Operated 1869-1888; reopened 1890 and finally closed 1894. College building, erected 1871, lies ...