The new speed cameras on the Jones Falls Expressway may be a prudent public safety measure (‘Slow your roll or get a ticket’: Baltimore adds 2 more speed cameras on I-83, July 17, 2025), but they besmirch the history of the waters that flow beneath.

After Colonial times, when Baltimore was the third-biggest commercial port in the country, after New York and Philadelphia, the waters of the Jones Falls powered close to a dozen mills, primarily cotton cloth and flour. The result was that in the early 1800s, Baltimore made the majority of the cotton duck sailcloth for the world. And that bred the Baltimore clipper, the speediest ship afloat.

In the War of 1812, a cheeky privateer in our clipper Chasseur declared, and ran, a one-ship blockade of the British Isles, whose world’s most powerful navy never could catch up to him. In 1814, the embarrassed Brits burned D.C. but then came up to punish Baltimore and were humiliated, and as they fled we got our National Anthem out of the victory.

So drive carefully Baltimoreans, but honor the triumphant memory of our town’s speed merchants under sail.

Stan Heuisler, Baltimore

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