HARRY W. NICE, GOVERNOR. 699

sub-title "Revenue Bonds" and to be known as Sections 105
to 122, inclusive, authorizing the State Roads Commission
to formulate a comprehensive plan for the construction of
bridges and tunnels providing for the creation of the Bridge
Supervisory Committee and conferring powers on such Com-
mittee; providing for the construction, operation and main-
tenance of bridges over and tunnels under rivers and navi-
gable waters which are wholly or partly within the State,
and for the construction, operation and maintenance within
the State of tunnels through hills and mountains; conferring
powers and imposing duties on the State Roads Commis-
sion; authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds of the State,
payable solely from earnings, to pay the cost of such bridges
and tunnels, providing that no debt of the State shall be
incurred in the exercise of any such powers; providing for
the collection of tolls for the payment of such bonds and
for the cost of maintenance, operation and repair of the
bridges and tunnels; prescribing conditions upon which
such bridges and tunnels shall become free; making such
bonds exempt from taxation; providing for condemnation;
and authorizing the issuance of revenue refunding bonds.

WHEREAS, approximately one-fifth of the State of Maryland
is water area, which in former generations has proven a great
blessing to the welfare of the people of this State and in many
ways still remains so, but as a result of the development of the
automobile and other means of rapid transportation, substan-
tial water areas in many states have become a handicap to the
development and growth of such states, and in many of such
states provision has been made by law to overcome this handi-
cap by the building of necessary bridges, tunnels and other
modern means of shortening routes and cutting down the cost
of transportation; and

WHEREAS, the Chesapeake Bay stretches one hundred and
thirty miles from the southern border line of Maryland to the
upper reaches of the Bay without any bridge or tunnel cross-
ing, and the Potomac River on the southern boundary stretches
ninety miles from the mouth of the river to the City of Wash-
ington where the first bridge crossing is located; and

WHEREAS, various rivers, creeks, bays and estuaries tribu-
tary to the Chesapeake Bay, including the Susquehanna,
Patuxent, Severn, Magothy, Rock Creek, Patapsco, Gunpowder,
Bush, North East, Elk, Sassafras, Charles, Choptank, and Nan-
ticoke Rivers are at present handicaps to quick transportation
'by automobile require circling by roadways, which handicaps
would be removed and the best interests of the territories
affected would be served by the construction of bridges; and