TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
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19<br />
As the SRC finalized the bridges’ construction in September 1940, a new study<br />
anticipating the state’s highway needs between 1941 and 1960 was completed by the agency.<br />
<strong>Maryland</strong> <strong>Highway</strong> Needs, 1941-1960, A Report of the <strong>State</strong>-wide <strong>Highway</strong> Planning Survey<br />
concluded that a dedicated source of funding for future road construction was necessary in order<br />
to meet the growing traffic demands throughout the state. 23 As traffic numbers showed, the<br />
difficult economic conditions in the late 1930s did not reduce the number of cars and trucks on<br />
the state’s highways each year. On US 1 between 1928 and 1932, traffic had increased more<br />
than fifty percent in four years or more than ten percent per year. In other areas of the state,<br />
traffic also continued to increase. On the Eastern Shore, Ocean City attracted more visitors each<br />
year, which increased traffic on the highway to the resort (now US 50, previously MD 213).<br />
Boosters of the Ocean <strong>Highway</strong>, US 13, publicized the road as a quick route from New York<br />
City to Florida because it avoided the traffic in Baltimore and Washington, DC, as well as<br />
Richmond, Virginia. Although the Governor and General Assembly supported the dedicated<br />
funding and new roads, other issues including the start of World War II prevented the SRC from<br />
receiving adequate funding to build a new highway system.<br />
Interregional <strong>Highway</strong>s<br />
The interregional highway system question again came to the forefront in 1941.<br />
Roosevelt appointed the National Interregional <strong>Highway</strong> Commission to further develop the<br />
1938 interregional plan and address nationwide traffic congestion. Roosevelt and other Federal<br />
and <strong>State</strong> officials also expected that once the war ended, unemployment rates would rise. They<br />
saw highway construction as a way to create jobs for returning soldiers. The SRC used<br />
Baltimore’s proximity to Washington, DC to study some of the traffic problems that would be a<br />
concern in any new national highway plan. Although the SRC made plans for civilian uses,<br />
America’s entry into World War II highlighted the defense aspects of the plan. Many<br />
<strong>Maryland</strong>ers hoped for a better road than US 1 between Baltimore and Washington. At the time<br />
Federal officials were more concerned about war preparations, as the BPR’s Administrator<br />
Thomas H. MacDonald noted during a March 13, 1941 interview with The Baltimore Evening<br />
Sun, <strong>Maryland</strong> needed new roads for its defense industry and military access more than a new<br />
expressway between Baltimore and Washington. 24<br />
23 <strong>State</strong> Roads Commission of <strong>Maryland</strong>, <strong>Maryland</strong> <strong>Highway</strong> Needs, 1941-1960, A Report of the <strong>State</strong>-wide<br />
<strong>Highway</strong> Planning Survey, Baltimore, MD (1940);<br />
24 The Baltimore Evening Sun, “Baltimore Itself Is Bottleneck in <strong>Highway</strong> Plans, Say Experts,” March 13, 1941,<br />
<strong>Maryland</strong> Department, Enoch Pratt Free Library