There is no better way to see America than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way, a self-guided walking tour is ready to explore when you are.
Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. A quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on North American streets is included.
In early America there may not have been a better place to watch a sunset than Burlington, which was organized as a town in 1785. On the eastern shore of Lake Champlain one could sit on a wide sandy crescent and look across the water to the Adirondack Mountains. But these sylvan pleasures would surely be intruded on in short order.
After all the natural falls of the Winooski River were begging for mills to take advantage of the water power. And when the Champlain Canal opened in 1823 to access the Hudson River and then New York City and then the Atlantic Ocean by water, the die was cast for Burlington to become Vermont’s largest and most important city.
By the middle of the 1800s, when the railroads arrived in town, Burlington was the third largest lumber port in the United States. The waterfront was a beehive of wharves and railyards and the city energetically built up the shoreline with thousands upon thousands of cubic yards of fill from the surrounding hillsides.
Meanwhile the city grew on the plateaus above the waterfront and incorporated in 1865. The new buildings were not those seen in the typical New England towns. These were sophisticated structures built by big city architects and bankrolled by wealthy local citizens. The tonnage sent out onto Lake Champlain was growing more sophisticated as well - gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel were eventually shipped on barges to and from 83 above ground bulk storage tanks on the Burlington waterfront.
Those days seem a long way away today. The barges have stopped floating - the lake’s southern end has accumulated too much silt. The biggest employers in the city in the 21st century are the University of Vermont and the school’s medical center. Down on the waterfront the freight schooners have been replaced by pleasure craft and bicycles roll where passenger trains once rumbled. And those sunsets are still sublime. To see what vestiges of the history of the Queen City remain we will begin our explorations at...
Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. A quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on North American streets is included.
In early America there may not have been a better place to watch a sunset than Burlington, which was organized as a town in 1785. On the eastern shore of Lake Champlain one could sit on a wide sandy crescent and look across the water to the Adirondack Mountains. But these sylvan pleasures would surely be intruded on in short order.
After all the natural falls of the Winooski River were begging for mills to take advantage of the water power. And when the Champlain Canal opened in 1823 to access the Hudson River and then New York City and then the Atlantic Ocean by water, the die was cast for Burlington to become Vermont’s largest and most important city.
By the middle of the 1800s, when the railroads arrived in town, Burlington was the third largest lumber port in the United States. The waterfront was a beehive of wharves and railyards and the city energetically built up the shoreline with thousands upon thousands of cubic yards of fill from the surrounding hillsides.
Meanwhile the city grew on the plateaus above the waterfront and incorporated in 1865. The new buildings were not those seen in the typical New England towns. These were sophisticated structures built by big city architects and bankrolled by wealthy local citizens. The tonnage sent out onto Lake Champlain was growing more sophisticated as well - gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel were eventually shipped on barges to and from 83 above ground bulk storage tanks on the Burlington waterfront.
Those days seem a long way away today. The barges have stopped floating - the lake’s southern end has accumulated too much silt. The biggest employers in the city in the 21st century are the University of Vermont and the school’s medical center. Down on the waterfront the freight schooners have been replaced by pleasure craft and bicycles roll where passenger trains once rumbled. And those sunsets are still sublime. To see what vestiges of the history of the Queen City remain we will begin our explorations at...
