| 130 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
parallel route. The company still professed to have hopes for
the legislature's permission.l88 By 1818 the Frederick Road
had been completed to Boonsborough, sixty miles from Balti-
more and the Reisterstown Road had been finished to West-
minster. The dividends from the state's shares in the Freder-
ick and York Turnpikes showed a steady increase each year 1119
Maryland's turnpikes, built by private corporations with
state aid, were successfully completed, and because they were
well-constructed, they survived railroad competition better
than the turnpikes of the other Middle Atlantic States. At
the end of the nineteenth century Maryland had a greater
portion of its turnpike mileage in operation than Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, or New York.l11°
Almost as successful was the state's experiment in corporate
privileges for private toll bridge companies. These projects
were favored by legislatures and investors alike because, with
their limited objectives and lesser amount of capital, they were
less risky enterprises than canals or even turnpike roads."'
Maryland incorporated seven tollbridges from 1791 to 1807
from which at least five bridges were completed. The only
encouragement the legislature gave the toll bridge companies,
besides the advantages of incorporation and tolls, was a mon-
opoly of site similar to the monopoly of route granted to turn-
pike companies. These privileges were given because it was
said that the company was assuming a burden in behalf of the
public?92
Three of the bridges constructed by this method, were situ-
ated in what was soon to be the District of Columbia: The
Georgetown Bridge Company (1791) with a capital of £32,-
500, The Eastern Branch Bridge Company (1795) with re-
sources of $45,000, and The Anacostia Bridge Company (1797)
with shares totaling $20,000.'9$ By 1797 the Georgetown Bridge
1x8 A]bert Gallatin, "Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the Subject
of Public Roads and Canals; Made in Pursuance of a Resolution of the Senate
." presented April 4, 1808; in American State Papers, Miscellaneous (Wash-
ington, 1884) , 1, 820.
lea Governor Goldsborough's Report to the Assembly, 1818, quoted in ibid.,
pp. 172-74.
"° Durrenberger, pp. 160-61.
3°1 Davis, II, 215.
'°' Durrenberger, p. 77.
'°$ Md. Sess., 1791 c. 81, 1797 c. 92.
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