The well-fortified hexagon sitting in the water of the Patapsco River just off the Key Bridge is Fort Carroll, an abandoned, pre-Civil War defense commissioned by Robert E. Lee himself that is so overgrown today that it acts as an informal bird sanctuary.
Fort Carroll was built in the late 1840s to defend the city of Baltimore from naval attacks, although like so many forts of its time this potential would never be realized. The manmade island base was designed as a concrete hexagon surrounding a central courtyard with large gun emplacements facing out towards the most assailable angle. The weaponry in the fort was reinforced during the Spanish-American war, but never used, and by the time World War I broke out, the fort and its guns were no longer relevant, thus the installation was officially abandoned in 1921 and stripped of its armaments.
The little geometric island sat dormant for decades, only being used briefly as a firing range during World War II. Finally in 1958 the fort was purchased by a Baltimore lawyer who proceeded to do nothing with it. As the years went by the fort became more and more overgrown as a small forest developed on the site and the concrete structure slowly cracked and fell apart.
With the new foliage and lack of any humans save for some intrepid urban explorers now and then, Fort Carroll has become home to a large population of seagulls and other birds. Today the island continues to sit unused save for some very lucky avian tenants.
United previewed their new lounge food today for several folks (I was not invited), although apparently they’re not willing to comment until the official release tomorrow. Nonetheless, from tweets of folks at the event we have the menu and photos of the food that we can expect. Here’s @AirlineReport: And the menu, from @cjmcginnis: And […]
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Back in December American Express announced a new Membership Rewards relationship with Airbnb "the world's leading community-driven hospitality company where people can list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world."
The net effect of this relationship is that members were now able to redeem Membership Rewards points for Airbnb e-gift cards. The gift cards come in denominations of $100 or $250 and require 10,000 or 25,000 Membership Rewards points, respectively.
While more partners are better than fewer partners, redeeming for gift cards is rarely a good idea since it is a 1 cent per point redemption. So there really hasn't been that much to get excited about.
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Yesterday I posted about how Cathay Pacific Asia Miles disappeared from the Membership Rewards transfer page over the weekend.
Asia Miles is a 1:1 transfer partner with Amex Membership Rewards, and can be useful for some oneworld redemptions, especially in light of the British Airways Executive Club devaluation.
Anyway, I followed up with American Express, and they said they were just working on some website maintenance. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles has once again returned to the Membership Rewards transfer page.
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We’ve all long suspected it, now it’s become public that air marshal flight schedules get changed to accommodate affairs they’re having or cities they’d like to travel to for free. “I think she put the offer out to quite a few (federal air marshals) and managers, literally acting like a travel agent,” retired air marshal […]
The post Air Marshals Scheduling Work Assignments for Vacations and Sexual Meetups, and That’s Not Even the Real Scandal. This Is. appeared first on View from the Wing.
Reader Luis left the following comment on my post yesterday about how to make Hyatt Diamond Guest Of Honor reservations:
"Ben, have you ever transferred Hyatt points before? Is there a fee? And could this be a way to get a Diamond member to book a room for someone else using that person’s points?"
While airlines almost all charge to transfer points between accounts, hotels tend to be more generous. I've written in the past about how:
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