William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial (Bay) Bridge History
This content is sponsored by Maryland Transportation Authority
A dream in 1908, a financial impossibility in 1929 and a war-postponed plan in 1940, what now is known as the Bay Bridge became a reality in 1949, when construction began and the first dredge started pumping the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay to make way for the bridge.
The world’s largest continuous over-water steel structure when it opened in 1952, the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial (Bay) Bridge provides a structural link that did not exist in the days when colonial Marylanders traveled by boat, with the Chesapeake Bay as their highway.
Along with the many private boats sailing the Bay prior to the Industrial Revolution, records show a regular ferry running between Kent Island and the Annapolis shore. However, as the population grew and spread inland, the wagon road, the railroad and, later, the automobile and the motor-truck, gradually relegated the Bay by boat to obscurity, and the Chesapeake Bay became a barrier rather than a bond between Eastern Maryland and the rest of the State.
There are recurring stories that, in the 1880s, preliminary studies explored building a bridge across the Bay. In 1907, Peter C. Campbell, Baltimore businessman and State Senator, told his associates that more of the Eastern Shore trade, which had been coming by boat to Baltimore, was going north by highway and railroad to Wilmington and Philadelphia.
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This article is a good find. Thanks for posting it!
ReplyDeleteAh the good days when the influx of morons was drastically limited and our way of life was much more pleasant.
ReplyDeleteI think I can hear 1209 playing the theme song to Deliverance on his front porch. 🎶
Delete1209 no life west of the Chesapeake Bay, right?
ReplyDeleteAmen Brother!!
DeleteA great article.
ReplyDeleteThank you
12:09 sorry that we stopped your very close relationship with your sister....oh I mean your girlfriend !
ReplyDelete124 the comment was said with disdain and sarcasm. Wow! 😲😲😲
ReplyDeleteYup, back then you had to marry a cousin, there were no new people on the shore.
ReplyDeleteI even have photos taken on the ferries of construction
ReplyDeleteOh come on. Don't be so hard on 1209. Just accept there's no life north of his neck and you'll understand him completely. Look Mom, no head, no hands!
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad we can't tear them down and let all the idiots stay on the other side
ReplyDelete327 think most of the idiots you're referring to are East of the Chesapeake not the other way around. 💁🏻♂️💁🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
DeleteI agree with 327 they should keep the inbred on the Shore. Why should they screw up the rest of Maryland with their hillbilly mantras and customs?
Delete334 👉🏻👉🏻 🤣🤣🤣 so true.
DeleteBest thing for this area is the born here attitude to die. They sound like a bunch of idiots. Monkeys 🐒.
ReplyDeleteNo bridge or tunnel it could have been Delaware.
ReplyDeleteIt just amazes me that the people on the western side look down on the people on the shore but they break their necks every weekend to get here.
ReplyDeleteWhat's even more amazing 401 is the people here on the Shore that turn their noses down at people from the Western Shore when if those city folk didn't come here to spend their money in tourism and education, you'd have no economy. Ask the owner of Cheers why he closes early now if your locals are buying enough stuff to keep him open to semester hours.
ReplyDeleteLeave it to closed minded born-heres aka idiot class, to pervert even the best articles Joe posts here about our community's history. Disgusting shit and we won't turn this place around until the last of you lay down for good.
ReplyDeleteLocals love biting the hands that feed them. They don't care. If they didn't have western shore people to bitch about, they'd find some other group to target. Petty ignorants.
ReplyDeleteIs the Eastern Shore of Maryland related to Paris by chance?
ReplyDeleteSeems to me most of ocean city revenue goes to Baltimore.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete816 your ignorance is stunning and so is your intolerance. How would you like it if they told you, you could never take your kids to DC to see the historical landmarks or treated you with such disdain? Chances are you would be very upset. This area depends on their money a lot more than your sorry ass. Only when the last of you born-here idiots die, will this area begin to see prosperity again. Your attitude sucks and so do you.
ReplyDeleteWestern shore people own a lot of condos in OC so in essence, they pay for your services, too. You born-heres don't seem to remember than inconvenient truth. Like morons, you bite the hand that feeds continually. Just a moron class. See you get your own brand of stupid.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWestern shore people own a lot of condos in OC so in essence, they pay for your services, too. You born-heres don't seem to remember than inconvenient truth. Like morons, you bite the hand that feeds continually. Just a moron class. See you get your own brand of stupid.
May 29, 2017 at 8:36 PM
In reality no they don't. They might pay taxed like the rest of us but that's it. Those monies go into a general fund and are used mostly away from the shore. They drive on our roads and degrade them but we don't get enough money from the very funds WE pay into to repair and upgrade those roads.
Pay for our services? Lol, that really made me laugh. Entitled little brats. I don't even want to talk about it anymore. It causes my bp to go up.