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and so did the spatial structure, the economics, the politics, and the culture of the
Baltimore metropolitan region itself. Every metropolitan region is comprised of
overlapping zones of varying size, each defined by a variety of factors.
Schematically speaking, the Baltimore metropolitan region of the era was divided
into two zones at its center, and a system of hinterlands on its periphery. The two
zones at the center were the city of Baltimore, juridically defined, and the
Baltimore industrial region.
The city of Baltimore in 1930 had a recorded population of 804,874 and was
the seventh largest city in the country. Huddled around the branches of the
Patapsco River — the waterway that extends ten miles in from the Chesapeake Bay
and seems more like a system of bays than a river -- the city ranged far to the north
and west. Indeed in 1930 it ranged much farther to the north and west than it had
before the war, for the annexation of 1918 had tripled the city's size. The city was
by no means a homogeneous space. Industrial density was greatest near the
harbors, with the highest concentration found around the railroad trunklines that
terminated on the north of the Inner Harbor on the Northwest Branch of the
Patapsco at Canton, on the west of the Inner Harbor at Camden station, on the
south at Locust Point, and far to the south at Fairfield and Curtis Bay. The main
exception to this pattern of industrialization in the city were the series of textiles
mills several miles north of the Inner Harbor on the Jones Falls. The downtown
area, containing the main financial and commercial establishments, was located
directly north and west of the Inner Harbor. Moving further to the north and west
of the harbor complex, the concentration of industry, commerce, and residency
generally lessened, as the urban gave way to the suburban and semi-rural.
The city of Baltimore had congealed over the previous 180 years from a
number of autonomous towns and villages, and these had left their mark on the
city's structure. The city was, in fact, originally formed from the amalgamation of
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