historic context of maryland highway bridges built between 1948 ...

SECTIONTHREEHistoric ContextThe Kent Narrows Bridge serving US 50/US301 (now MD 18B), built in 1951, was alsodesigned to provide a higher span (18 feet at mean tide) and a moveable drawbridge, replacing atwo-lane drawbridge built in 1932. This span was at a location involving both water andvehicular traffic immediately east of the Bay Bridge and subject to increasingly heavy traffic asthe Bay Bridge opened and brought ever-larger numbers of vehicles. The 1951 Kent NarrowsBridge became obsolete by the 1980s when even higher volumes of traffic were subject to longbackups stretching for miles. A new high-level, fixed-span bridge replaced it in 1989-1990 (Pratt1952; Corddry 1983; SHA 1990).The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is the most significant bridge that connected formerly isolated partsof the state and is discussed below. Other examples include the MD 231 (Patuxent River) Bridge,built in 1950, that joined formerly disconnected parts of the state, in this case Charles andCalvert Counties, which historically relied on ferries for transport across a major body of water(Lowery 1998:6). The bridges crossing the Potomac cited by LaViness as significant for theirheight, also are examples of the theme of linkage. Both the Blue Bridge, built in 1954 inCumberland, and the Keyser-McCool Bridge, built between 1949 and 1951, allowed vehiculartraffic to travel between Maryland and West Virginia. These bridges enabled easier commercialand private travel in this mountainous area, removing much of the isolation of the area andsupporting the economic vitality of the region.Of the many bridges built in the period to support Maryland‘s highway projects, the ChesapeakeBay Bridge stands out as the most significant from many perspectives. The most spectacular roadproject of the era, it is both an example of improved bridge construction technologies and of acultural connector between two areas of the state that had been historically separate. Officiallynamed the William Preston Lane, Jr. Memorial Bridge and popularly called the Bay Bridge, it islocated east of Annapolis and spans the bay as part of US 50/US 301. The bridge‘s dual spansprovide a direct connection between Maryland‘s recreational areas along the ocean and themetropolitan areas of Baltimore, Annapolis, and Washington, D.C.Serious interest in a bridge across the Chesapeake Bay had begun as early as 1908 andproponents considered many location options. The location chosen was centrally located andserved traffic to and from Baltimore and Washington. Work began on the bridge in 1949 andreplaced two vehicular ferries that ran from near Annapolis to the Eastern Shore. The bridgeopened to traffic in 1952 and a parallel structure opened in 1973. With a shore-to-shore length of4.3 miles, the bridges are among the world‘s longest and considered by many to be among themost scenic of large bridge structures. Both bridges were designed by Greiner: the 1952 spancost $44 million and was built with two lanes; the second three-lane bridge, was built to be a―modernized look alike‖ and cost $117 million.The Bay Bridge made travel between the Eastern and Western Shores of Maryland easier thanever before, changing the economic and cultural relationship between the two areas of the stateand the orientation of the Eastern Shore from Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware toBaltimore and Washington. It also enabled commercial traffic to move more readily across thestate and thereby became a direct connection to the tourist, recreational and agricultural regionsof the Eastern Shore. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge was controversial; some Eastern Shoreresidents resisted the changes that would result, including economic development some felt wasout of character with the small town, rural atmosphere of the Shore and the inevitable presence\15-SEP-11\\ 4-17