23 Facts About Baltimore County

Baltimore County is the third-most populous county in the U S state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area.

Baltimore County is part of the Northeast megalopolis, which stretches from Northern Virginia northward to Boston.

Previously, Baltimore County was known more as a geographical entity than a political one, with its territorial limits including most of northeastern Maryland, which was then the northwestern frontier of the Province and included the present-day jurisdictions of Baltimore City, Cecil and Harford Counties, as well as parts of Carroll, Anne Arundel, Frederick, Howard and Kent Counties.

In 1773, Harford County to the east was split off, and in 1837 another part of western Baltimore County was combined with a part of eastern Frederick County to create Carroll County.

The site of the courthouse, jail and county seat for Baltimore County was evidently "Old Baltimore" near the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County.

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The city remained a part of surrounding Baltimore County and continued to serve as its county seat from 1768 to 1851.

Baltimore County became one of the few "independent cities" in the United States, putting it on the same level with the state's other 23 counties and granting limited "home rule" powers outside the authority of the Maryland General Assembly.

The City of Baltimore continued annexing land from the county, extending its western and northern boundaries in 1888.

New Baltimore County Courthouse was authorized to be built facing Washington Avenue, between Chesapeake and Pennsylvania Avenues to replace the previous courthouse and governmental offices then centered for near 85 years in the city, which had been the official "county seat" since just before the American Revolution.

In 1956 the Baltimore County adopted an "executive-council" system of government with "at large" representatives, replacing its traditional system of an elected Board of Baltimore County Commissioners.

Baltimore County was later accused of corruption and bribery while serving as County executive and continuing to accept bribes as the state's governor and as U S vice president.

Baltimore County pleaded "no contest" to unprecedented Federal criminal charges.

Politically, Baltimore County leans Democratic, but not as overwhelmingly as Baltimore City.

Baltimore County followed Sandra A O'Connor, a Republican who served eight terms before retiring in 2006.

Baltimore County's duties included the collection of all public taxes and after 1692, the collection of the yearly poll tax of forty pounds of tobacco for the support of the Anglican clergy and parishes.

Baltimore County Executive oversees the executive branch of the County government, which is charged with implementing County law and overseeing the government operations.

Baltimore County Council adopts ordinances and resolutions and holds the county's legislative powers.

Much of Baltimore County is suburban, straddling the border between the Piedmont plateau to the northwest and in the southern and southeastern regions of the county bordering the Patapsco River and the Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic coastal plain.

Northern Baltimore County is primarily rural, with a landscape of rolling hills and deciduous forests characteristic of the Southeastern mixed forests and shares the geography with its neighbors to the east and west, Carroll County and Harford County, and going north across the historic Mason–Dixon line into Adams County and York County in south-central Pennsylvania.

Baltimore County has a humid subtropical climate except in the northern tier where a hot-summer humid continental climate exists.

Former rail lines running through the County beginning in the 19th Century were the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad and the Northern Central Railway .

All public schools in Baltimore County are operated by Baltimore County Public Schools, the sole school district in the county, with the exception of the Imagine Me Charter School which opened August 2008.

Baltimore County has a number of private schools at the K-12 grade levels.