Labor Day 2020 In Towson: What's Open, Closed

TOWSON, MD — The holiday that celebrates American workers will look different in Baltimore County and everywhere else this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said the holiday weekend will be key in determining if the country gets a "running start" at controlling the virus in the fall. Fauci stressed the importance of preventing surges that occurred after Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.

Many events have been canceled. Even as the coronavirus spoils some plans, a number are still on.

Labor Day — the holiday that marks the unofficial end of summer and the start of the school year — is among the busiest travel holidays of the year.

Check the latest forecast for Towson from the National Weather Service.

A Travel Pulse report citing numbers from Tripit from Concur shows Las Vegas, Denver, Orlando, Chicago and Seattle are the most popular big-city American destinations for the weekend.

Here is what's opened and closed around Monday's holiday in Baltimore County:

Baltimore County Animal Services: Closed

Baltimore County government offices: Closed

Baltimore County Public Library branches: Closed

Courts: Closed

Coronavirus testing sites run by the health department: Closed

Coronavirus testing sites run privately (Patient First, CVS, etc.): Many are open; check

CountyRide vans: Not operating

Towson Town Center: Open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday.

Towson University: Closed on Monday for Labor Day.

Trash: Trash pickup is not occurring Monday. Check your collection schedule to find out the pickup date. in Baltimore County, visit the Bureau of Solid Waste Management's website or see the BaltCoGo mobile app for more information.

Landfill and recycling: Trash and recycling drop-off centers in Baltimore County will be closed Monday and reopen Tuesday.

Parking meters: Free on Labor Day

MARC trains: These will not run Labor Day. A new schedule takes effect Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Metro: Operating on a holiday schedule Monday. Trains will run between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Commuter Bus No. 201 will operate on a weekend/holiday schedule.

History Of Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated in 1882, with a parade in New York City, but the question of who first proposed the idea of a holiday to honor workers is in dispute more than a century later.

Congress didn't recognize the holiday until what History.com calls a "watershed moment" in American labor history: the 1894 Pullman Palace Car Company strike in Chicago. The strike led to sending federal troops into the city to quell rioters.

Days later, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making Labor Day, the first Monday of September, a national holiday.

Over the past year, the unemployment rate has nearly tripled due to the pandemic. Numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported the national unemployment rate in July was at 10.2 percent. That's down from the earlier months of the pandemic but still far higher than the 3.7 percent rate the bureau reported in July 2019. About 30 million American jobs have been lost, a June U.S. Department of Labor report details.

See Also:

• Extra Troopers Will Be Patrolling MD Roads For Labor Day Weekend
• Stay Safe Labor Day Weekend

— By Tim Moran, Elizabeth Janney and Kristin Danley-Greiner