F. H. Zouck
chairman, Maryland State Roads Commission · active chairman of the Maryland State Roads Commission, 1916
Chairman of the Maryland State Roads Commission during the year the Ocean City bay bridge was authorized. He came to Ocean City with chief engineer Shirley and Col. John Biddle of the War Department in late May 1916 to select the bridge site; he signed the Commission's October 1916 notice to contractors for the fill across Sinepuxent Bay; and on 30 December 1916 he wrote to Senator Orlando Harrison explaining that the low bidder could not furnish bond and that the work had been re-awarded to the F. B. Beasman Company, who "expect to start work next week."
In the record (4)
1916
The State Roads Commission picks the bridge site at the end of May 1916: about three hundred yards north of the railroad bridge, landing at the foot of Worcester Street.
The Cambridge *Daily Banner* of 2 June 1916, "SITE SELECTED FOR OCEAN CITY BRIDGE": F. H. Zouck, chairman of the State Roads Commission, H. G. Shirley, its chief engineer, and Col. John Biddle of the War Department went to Ocean City to choose the site. "It is pretty well understood that the bridge will be constructed about three hundred yards North of the railroad bridge, and will enter Ocean City at the foot of Worcester Street, which is one square South of the new railroad station at Ocean City. Some of the people wanted the bridge to cross the bay further up, but the cost of building across such a wide reach would be so much [greater]." The county delegation that went down to argue the placing: Wm. D. Corddry, J. Edward White, Harris Corddry and M. T. Hargis of Snow Hill; Senator Harrison of Berlin; Walter B. Miller of Salisbury. The approach from the bayside was to be tied into the existing macadam.
Maryland State Roads CommissionHenry G. ShirleyOrlando Harrison
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1916 · 1916-12-30
The bridge is bid, re-awarded and still unbuilt when 1916 ends: on 30 December the chairman of the State Roads Commission writes Harrison that work will start "next week."
The State Roads Commission advertised the job in October: "CONTRACT No. WO-[1]. WORCESTER COUNTY. Sealed proposals for the following: Fill across Sinepuxent Bay between end of State Road and Ocean City, approximately [—] cubic yards, will be received by the State Roads Commission at its offices, 601 Garrett Building, Baltimore, Maryland, until 12 M., on the 14th day of November, 1916." Ordered by the Commission on 4 October 1916; F. H. Zouck, Chairman, Lyon H. Wilson, Secretary. Ocean City had also been advertised for on the land side: in October a State Roads condemnation jury was summoned to meet on Mrs. Sarah Kenton Taber's land on 23 October 1916 for the road "leading from Berlin, in Worcester County, Maryland, to the Sinepuxent Bay and Ocean City," on plans approved by H. D. [H. G.] Shirley, Chief Engineer. Then, in the *Messenger*'s last issue of the year, under "Getting Ready to Build New Ocean City Bridge — Work Will Start At Once," Zouck's letter of 30 December 1916 to Senator Harrison at Berlin: "I have your letter of the 3rd inst., in which [you say] that the people of Ocean City are very much disappointed that the work has not been awarded for the approaches to the bridge. In replying thereto, I beg to advise you that the low bidder, Mr. Rich, could not furnish bond, and as his time limit expired last week, we, therefore, have awarded it to the next lowest bidder, F. B. Beasman Co. They expect to start work next week, and have agreed to do it within the original time limit."
This is the correction 1916 owes the registry. The bay bridge is dated 1916 because that is the year it was authorized, funded, sited, federally approved and put out to bid — but on 31 December 1916 not a yard of it had been built. The automobile era at Ocean City starts on paper in 1916 and in concrete in 1917.
Maryland State Roads CommissionOrlando HarrisonHenry G. Shirley
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1918 · 1918-03-09
The State Roads Commission's plan for carrying the state highways through Maryland's incorporated towns allots Ocean City $6,000.
In March 1918 the Commission endorsed the Municipal Congress of Maryland's plan for improving the state highways through incorporated towns and asked the legislature for $675,000. The schedule printed in the Messenger of 9 March 1918 gave, among many: Worcester Co. -- Snow Hill $25,000, Ocean City $6,000, Pocomoke City $15,000; against Salisbury $25,000, Cambridge $25,000, Easton $25,000, Crisfield $30,000, Cumberland $35,000. Senator Orlando Harrison had written to every mayor in the county: "I hope you will be present and have every member of your City Council with you, and every good road man in your section," for the joint hearing of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees at Annapolis on Wednesday 6 March. Ocean City's $6,000 is the smallest allotment of any incorporated Worcester town -- the same relative position it held in the 1917 Liberty Loan -- and it is the paving that would meet the bridge.
Maryland State Roads CommissionOrlando HarrisonHenry G. Shirley
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1919 · 1919-07-04
Ten thousand people and 1,185 automobiles come to Ocean City for the formal opening of the bay bridge on the Fourth of July.
The Mayor and Council of Ocean City invited "all of the citizens of Maryland, Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Virginia" to the dedication. The Baltimore Sun's staff correspondent, reprinted in the Messenger of 12 July: "Dual celebration of the national holiday and of the formal opening of the new State highway bridge across Sinepuxent Bay caused the only seaside resort of Maryland to suddenly bound today from lethargy into as great summer activity as it has ever known. Governor Harrington and about 10,000 other residents of the State cooperated to make the day memorable in the city's history. By actual count, 1,185 automobiles had come into this city at 3 P. M., over the bridge, and 8,000 visitors, about 360 of whom were from Baltimore, by train." The Governor motored over from Cambridge with his family; the Pocomoke City Band announced his two-o'clock arrival with "Maryland, My Maryland" and then led the procession out to the drawkeeper's house, midway of the bridge, where the ceremonies took place. Small evergreen trees had been planted at intervals along the entire length of the bridge; they and a few flags on the drawkeeper's house "were the only decorations." John W. Ennis of Pocomoke called for order. Chief engineer Mackall said the bridge "was the last link in the chain of good roads from Ocean City to Western Maryland."
1,185 cars counted by three in the afternoon, against 8,000 people off the trains. The road had not beaten the railroad yet — but for the first time in Ocean City's history somebody thought the cars were worth counting.
Maryland State Roads CommissionOrlando HarrisonJohn Walter SmithPhillips Lee Goldsborough
Source · checked 2026-08-06