TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...

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