1432                       JOINT RESOLUTIONS.

this section of the country would be deflected to such a cross-
ing, and that not only would it be used by the people from all
parts of our own State, but there would be promoted an increase
in traffic from the outside with a corresponding increase in
revenue from the gasoline tax, and thus directly aid in the
maintenance of our State road system.

The report of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Commission repre-
sents a careful and intelligent study of the proposition it
submits. The membership of the Commission, of which Mr.
B. Howell Griswold, Jr., is the chairman, includes some of
the State's most distinguished and capable citizens. The Com-
mission enlisted the services of some of the leading legal,
financial and engineering minds of the State who recognized
the importance of the project under consideration. Much
labor and time has been given gratuitously to the State and the
magnitude and importance of the subject under consideration
has been placed before the people in a most comprehensive
manner.

The thanks of the General Assembly and of the people of
the whole State are due to the members of the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge Commission for the services they have rendered.

The Commission's report recommends the creation of a new
State Department or Commission, or the enlargement of the
State Roads Commission, as now constituted, or that the State
Roads Commission itself be authorized to proceed at once to a
thorough investigation of the costs of and traffic over a struc-
ture across the Chesapeake Bay. If a separate commission,
known as the Maryland Toll Bridge Commission, were to be
created, then it should be authorized to investigate the costs
and probable traffic over other bridges or tunnels of like im-
portance crossing other water-ways of or bounding the State,
The Bay Bridge Commission likewise recommended that; if
the tolls and revenue from estimated traffic indicated a wide
margin of safety on the interest of bonds to be issued, then the
Maryland Toll Bridge Commission would have authority to
issue such bonds, payable only out of tolls and revenues, and
without involving in any way, as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
Commission believed, the credit of the State, or of the Toll
Bridge Commission issuing the bonds. The proceeds of the
bonds would be used to build the structure and the bonds
would be retired from the proceeds of tolls pledged to secure
them. When such bonds were retired, the structure would
become the unpledged property of the State and be made toll