Ocean City Bridge Committee
civic · founded 1938
A residents' committee chosen at a meeting in the summer of 1938 by Ocean City people who wanted the new highway bridge kept at Worcester Street. Its membership included L. Franklin Purnell, Dr. Charles W. Purnell, Clarence Carey and Edward Gray, with William H. Purnell as secretary. It asked the State Roads Commission in writing for a fresh bridge survey at North Fifteenth Street, arguing that a bridge there would be cheap because the rights of way were cheap and that the saving would pay to rebuild the existing Worcester Street span. Three of its members were among the twelve speakers who opposed the North Division Street permit at the War Department hearing of 15 August 1938. It was formed AFTER the town's own council had already conveyed North Division and Caroline Streets to the state, which is to say it was formed to fight a decision the town had already made.
In the record (1)
1938 · 1938-07-28
Ocean City residents formed a Bridge Committee in the summer of 1938 to keep Worcester Street, and asked the state to survey North Fifteenth Street instead
'The Ocean City Bridge Committee, recently chosen at a meeting of residents favoring Worcester street for a new bridge and whose membership includes L. Franklin Purnell, Dr. Charles W. Purnell, Clarence Carey, Edward Gray and William H. Purnell, secretary, said today that a written official request for a new bridge survey for North 15th street would be sent immediately to the State Roads Commission in Baltimore.' Their case was that approval for a bridge at North Fifteenth Street, together with the improvement and maintenance of the present Worcester Street span, 'would not only build an economical bridge at North 15th street, where rights of way can be secured at low cost, but also re-build the present Worcester street bridge.' It was a committee formed after the town council had already given the state North Division and Caroline Streets, and its members are the same men who turn up three weeks later at the War Department hearing.
Maryland State Roads CommissionL. Franklin PurnellDr. Charles Washington PurnellClarence CareyEdward GrayWilliam H. Purnell
Source · checked 2026-08-11