6 Board of Public Works

one year and that specified progress be made within three and ten years, upon pain
of forfeiting the rights granted under the act.²⁰

Three years later the legislature sought to improve the road connections between
Baltimore and the West by authorizing the building of a turnpike fifty-two feet wide,
"grubbed and stoned forty feet wide," with a six-foot drainage ditch, from Baltimore
to Frederick. To pay for the road a one-year tax of £0.3.9 was imposed on every hundred
pounds of property in Baltimore County, of which the tax collector could keep 5 percent
"for his trouble." Tolls from the road belonged to Baltimore County, which was to
maintain the road.²¹

In 1796 the General Assembly established the Pocomoke Company for the purpose
of improving the navigation of the Pocomoke River from Snow Hill in Worcester
County to the Delaware River. This, too, contemplated a series of canals and locks,
and except for a state subscription the act was similar to that chartering the Potomac
Company. The Pocomoke Company was capitalized at $11,000.²²

In 1799 the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company was chartered. It was
authorized to "cut such canals, and erect such locks, and perform such other works,
as they shall judge necessary for opening, improving and extending, the navigation
between the bay of Chesapeake and the river Delaware." The company was capitalized
at $500,000, and actual incorporation was made contingent upon subscription to half
the shares.²³

Thus by 1800 the state was already looking to internal improvements to the east,
north, and west. Yet, with the rapid development of the West these early efforts soon
proved inadequate, especially in comparison with the more ambitious steps undertaken
by Maryland's neighbors to the north and south.

In the West, trade on the Mississippi River was facilitated through steam—powered
riverboats. These boats enabled New Orleans to attract trade from merchants who
had previously utilized the waterways to the east.²⁴ In response to this competition,
Virginia coordinated its internal improvement policy in 1816 with the creation of a
board of public works.²⁵

To the north, both New York and Pennsylvania made concerted efforts to improve
their trade routes. Those states had concluded that substantial internal improvements
could not be accomplished solely through private ventures but would require the active
participation of the state itself. To that end New York created a Public Works Com-
mission that had the power to borrow $400,000 annually from the state and to begin
construction of the Erie Canal. Similarly, by 1820 Pennsylvania had invested $1 mil-
lion in transportation improvements.²⁶