This past Saturday was the 70th anniversary of the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge; it opened on July 30, 1952.
The bridge (also known locally as simply the Bay Bridge) is a major dual-span bridge in Maryland. Crossing Chesapeake Bay, the bridge connects the state’s more rural Eastern Shore with the urban Western Shore. The original span’s length is 4.3 miles; at the time it opened it was the world’s longest continuous over-water steel structure. It was also the third-longest bridge in...
On this date in 1957, the 1.4-mile, four-lane Harbor Tunnel opened. It crosses under the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland. The tunnel ended the need for vehicles to use Baltimore streets, thereby avoiding 51 traffic signals. Before the tunnel opened, traveling on city streets was known as the “Baltimore Bottleneck” for East Coast traffic. Today, 64 years later, more than 25 million vehicles use the tunnel annually.
The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Thruway is signed as Interstate 895 (I-985). It...