WILLIAM PRESTON LANE, JR., MEMORIAL BRIDGE 515

dream of private interests during the first quarter 0I this century, and
of State officials during the Ritchie and Nice administrations in the
1930's. America's entry into World War II caused a shelving of plans
to finance and construct such a span.

To William Preston Lane, Jr., assuming office immediately after the
war, the construction of a single, mighty span uniting Maryland's
shores was not to be forgotten or postponed. For he had heroic dreams
for Maryland, and a hero's courage to transform the ideal into the
real.

Governor Lane was faced with the challenge of moving Maryland
out of the postwar lethargy; of providing services in many fields and
modernizing facilities delayed by the war emergency; of helping a
people ana an economy adjust from wartime production to peacetime
consumption.

The leadership and courage he displayed in bolstering the State's
financial structure, in the face of public bitterness and even hostility,
will long be remembered. So will his vision in building the Chesapeake
Bay bridge, which was his greatest dream and aspiration — for no
man better understood what a Bay bridge could do for Maryland.

Today, the impact of this bridge in terms of added convenience to
Maryland's citizens and added impetus to Maryland's economy is self-
evident. Since the Bay bridge opened to traffic in 1952, almost 48
million motor vehicles have travelled across it; over $67 million in
toll income has been collected.

Even more significant has been the economic growth on the Eastern
Shore, generated to a tremendous extent by the bridge. The develop-
ment of Ocean City — the Eastern Shore's resort mecca — offers evi-
dence that the bridge has been a catalyst to Maryland's tourist in-
dustry. In 1952, Ocean City's assessable base was approximately $10. 7
million. Today it is $58. 6 million — a growth of almost 600 percent.
Admission and amusement receipts from Ocean City reveal identical
results. Since 1952, consumer volume has leaped almost 600 percent.

So great has been the success of Eastern Shore resorts and commerce,
so tremendous the increase in summertime traffic, that the present
bridge has been unable to sustain the demands placed upon it, es-
pecially during the tourist season. Within a decade of its opening, the
traffic volumes nearly doubled; and as the traffic grew so did the fre-
quency and duration of delays. The very same tourists who had first
been attracted to the Eastern Shore by the convenience of the Bay
bridge suddenly found themselves repelled by traffic jams that trans-