The William Preston Lane, Jr. Memorial Bridge (AKA: The Chesapeake Bay Bridge)

9509

Standing on my friends dock in North Beach, on a clear day it is (surprisingly) possible to see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Looking at a map, it is about twenty miles as the crow flies. The bridge was named after the governor who was in office when the initial span was built in 1952. The second span was opened in 1973. Both spans are close to 4.3 miles long.

Several years ago now, I spoke with a man who had worked on the construction of the second span. He told me about a worker who lost his life when he fell into a footer while they were pouring concrete at a high rate of speed and they were unable to stop the equipment in time. There are a lot of people on the Eastern Shore who rely on that bridge everyday to get back and forth to work no matter what the wind or weather. I'm just thankful I'm not one of them.