TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
27<br />
project. The highway bonds sold slowly but steadily and by 1953, all $100,000,000 were<br />
expended or committed for specific projects<br />
In addition to the bridge, the SRC also constructed the approach roads on US 50 between<br />
Annapolis and Queenstown, along with a new bascule span bridge between Kent Island and the<br />
Eastern Shore mainland (Figure 7).<br />
Figure 7: US 50 Westbound of US 301 Northbound, Queen Anne’s County, MD (Source:<br />
SHA Photo Archive)<br />
Governor Lane was defeated in his reelection bid in 1950 because of the voters’<br />
dissatisfaction with his increased sales taxes. However, under his Five Year Program, the SRC<br />
had constructed or reconstructed 757 miles of highway, and started the planning and construction<br />
of the expressway system and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with its approach roads in Anne<br />
Arundel and Queen Anne’s counties. The SRC completed the Bay Bridge in 1952, and the<br />
Baltimore-Washington Parkway opened to traffic in 1954 between Baltimore and Washington,<br />
DC.<br />
Lane lost the 1950 election to Theodore R. McKeldin of Baltimore. Although the defeat<br />
meant an end to Lane’s Five Year Program, McKeldin understood <strong>Maryland</strong>’s need for<br />
highways, and would approve the construction of the Washington and Baltimore Beltways or<br />
Circumferential <strong>Highway</strong>s, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, and the start of the interstate<br />
construction specifically associated with President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1956 program.