Photo courtesy of Montgomery
County, Md.
Montgomery County, Md. transportation personnel monitor traffic throughout
the 500-square-mile county at the county's state-of-the-art Advanced Transportation
Management System office.
Within 45 minutes of Baltimore's famed Inner Harbor sits Maryland's largest and most populous community, Montgomery County. Offering a blend of urban sophistication and country leisure, Montgomery County has a little of something for everyone.
With its close proximity to Washington, D.C., our community is within minutes of the White House, U.S. Capitol, the Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson monuments, Arlington National Cemetery, the Vietnam Memorial and, of course, the Smithsonian museums.
Just a short trip south from Baltimore on Interstate 95, Montgomery county is located just north of the District of Columbia and borders Prince George's, Howard and Frederick counties in Maryland; and Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia.
Nearly 500 square miles in size, the county is home to 819,000 residents and many federal agencies.
As a visitor, you'll find plenty to do in Montgomery County. Between touring historic homes, strolling through spectacular gardens or riding an antique trolley, Montgomery County is truly a great place to begin and end your day.
If shopping and fine restaurants are in your plans, be sure to include a trip to White Flint Mall in North Bethesda; Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, or Wheaton Plaza.
For golf enthusiasts, Montgomery County is home to some of the finest public courses in the mid-Atlantic region. And, speaking of golf, Montgomery County is proud to be the host community for two of professional golf's premier events - the Kemper and this year's U.S. Open Championship.
For NACo conference attendees who can get away for a few hours, a visit to the county's state-of-the-art Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS) Center is a must. Located on the 11th floor of the Executive Office Building in Rockville, the center monitors daily more than 3,000 miles of streets and highways.
Using technology perfected by the military in Operation Desert Storm, traffic technicians are aided by computer technology, fixed-wing aircraft, television cameras, and more than 700 individual traffic signals that can be manually controlled.
Information on traffic conditions, including live video shots of major highways, is provided daily to citizens through the county's cable television station and Internet Web site.
Also worthy of a visit is a trip to the county's award-winning Resource Recovery Facility in Dickerson.
Located on a 35-acre sit in the rural upcounty area, the waste-to-energy facility was designed to process 1,800 tons of solid waste material a day and provide enough energy to power the plant and 40,000 homes. All solid waste coming into the facility is transported on a dedicated railway system.
Montgomery County is pleased to join with the City of Baltimore in welcoming all NACo representatives to the 62nd Annual Conference in July. While here, if you would like to visit our community, stop by our conference booth located in the Convention Center. If you would like to arrange a tour of the Advanced Traffic Management System Center, Life Sciences Center or the Resource Recovery Facility, call the Office of Public Information at 301/217-6530 and ask for Sue Tucker or Mike Hall.
(For pre-conference tourist information, contact the Montgomery County
Conference and Visitors Center at 800/925-0880.)