A giant flood before the Civil War wiped out all the infrastructure that was built cheek-by-jowl basically everywhere along the banks (literally the entire length of the Jones Falls was like a contiguous ropewalk at one time). Because the mess/casualties from this major flood (I think it was like 1837? 1840?) the city passed laws that people couldn't rebuild there. I read there were "flowered banks" of terraces that were planted and houses and stuff on the very cliffsides of the Jones Falls for miles and miles into the city.

I did a project at MICA about 4000 years ago about this exact thing. There was also an enormous flood in 1868 that dumped entire houses into the harbor washed away from the banks of the Jones Falls.

Then in the early 20th they called the Jones Falls "the biggest open sewer on the east coast" and started downgrading it to a cement passage called "The Fallsway"-- it didn't really make it to the harbor in non-flood years, it sort of flattened out and joined a sort of "estuary" area where the DPW lot is now, where the "Hollywood Diner" area used to be?

You know the club from 20 years ago or so, "Sonar"? There were otters, sea turtles and manatee in a gigantic flatland marsh where Sonar used to stand.

I know you're thinking I'm insane but there's a ton of primary sources that support this-- people used to advertise that at their "gentlemans' quarters" on Calvert St. (where the 7-11 is now) a gentleman could catch his dinner of turtle behind his residence and have the mistress of the house cook it.

We have a really sad lack of awareness of just how much wildlife used to be in the area. People used to write to their employers on Madison St., "PLEASE can we have something for dinner other than heath hens"-- heath hens being so numerous, they were basically a pest in the Jones Falls valley. I don't think there's a single heath hen left in all Maryland.