Ausborn House

Sniper’s Nest

Bullet holes around the upstairs window of the Ausbon House are haunting reminders of a fight to the death here on December 10, 1862, when a Confederate sniper refused to surrender. Hoping to drive out the U.S. forces occupying ...

Cushing’s Torpedo

Sinking of CSS Albemarle

CSS Albemarle, which had been built in a cornfield beside the Roanoke River in 1863-1864, helped drive the U.S. Army from Plymouth in April 1864 and defeated seven U.S. gunboats in May. The ironclad ram seemed invincible, ...

CSS Albemarle

Ironclad Gunboat

In 1863, 19-year-old engineer Gilbert Elliott contracted with the Confederate Navy Department to construct an ironclad gunboat designed by John L. Porter, the navy’s chief architect. Elliott built the vessel at Edwards Ferry on the Roanoke River, 60 miles ...

Fifty Star Flag

Bicentennial Flag Memorial

With the admission of Alaska in 1959 and Hawaii in 1960, the present fifty-star flag came into being. Like other flags of our nation, the fifty-star flag has seen the varied conditions that can beset a dynamic association ...

Forty-Eight Star Flag

Bicentennial Flag Memorial

The obligations and responsibilities of becoming an imperial power as a result of the Spanish-American War quickly multiplied. The international problems that arose in Latin America, in the Philippines, and in China saw the first application of Theodore ...

Night at the Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory

Latitude Observatory Park

Each night an observer would conduct a series of tasks as they made and recorded their observations; including rotating, aligning, and leveling the telescope, taking numerous readings of stars, weather and other factors.

A typical night at the observatory ...

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 ...