The National Aquarium is a nonprofit organization, but its buildings and the piers on which they sit are owned by the City of Baltimore. The 150-year-old, 5,000-pound skeleton of a finback whale known as Omega is on permanent loan from New York State Museum in Albany. The enormous whale skeleton that hangs from the ceiling above what is now Blacktip Reef has also been part of the Aquarium since the start. The quote-which is from his book, "The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature," published in 1957-still appears on a wall just inside the Aquarium's Main Entrance. Words To Set Our Thinking RightĪn August 8, 1981, article in the New York Times about the National Aquarium's grand opening begins, "On a plaque, to set our thinking right as we begin, are the words of Loren Eiseley: ‘If there is any magic on this planet, it is contained in water.'" Loren Eiseley was an anthropologist, science writer, ecologist and poet. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on August 8, 1978, three years to the day before the grand opening. Because of the proposed height and design of the Aquarium building, plans shifted to Pier 3. Initially, the Aquarium was going to be built between the Maryland Science Center and Harborplace Light Street pavilion, where the Baltimore Visitor Center now stands. When that project's funding was cut in 1972, Baltimore pivoted, and Plan B began taking shape. ![]() By 1971, designs for a federally funded public housing project called Inner Harbor West were complete. "It's well known that Mayor William Donald Schaefer and a trip to Boston played a key role in the Aquarium's development," says Scott Perich, the Aquarium's director of long-range planning, "but the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor with a convention center, shops and an aquarium, as our origin story typically begins, was actually Plan B." In 1966, Baltimore City residents voted to create an Inner Harbor renewal plan to revitalize the industrial harbor with its aging piers and wharves.
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