The city owned little wharf property of importance before 1904, but the fire made it possible to buy all the burned district fronting the harbor. This the city purchased and laid out in a wonderful system of public wharves and docks open to the commerce of the world.
THE POST OFFICE
Pier 4, at the foot of Market Place, has been set aside for the use of market boats, and here small crafts bring much of the fruit, vegetables, fish, crabs, and oysters which make the markets of Baltimore among the most attractive in the United States. There are eleven of these markets, and on market days they are a most interesting sight with their busy jostling crowds all eagerly buying or selling.
THE CITY HALL
But these great improvements in the business center and along the water front are only part of the good results which have followed the fire. In past years Baltimore had many miles of open sewers, an unhealthful arrangement which caused much sickness. The very year after the fire, work was begun to do away with this evil, and to-day the city has a sanitary, up-to-date sewer system.
LEXINGTON MARKET