History

Capt. H. T. Miller

District engineer, U.S. War Department · active 1938

District War Department engineer who, with Col. John S. Doyle, presided over the public hearing at the Ocean City Pier convention hall on 15 August 1938 on the State Roads Commission's application for a permit to build a $450,000 bay bridge at North Division Street. He ruled that the Commission must decide whether it intended to maintain the existing Worcester Street bridge before any permit would issue for a new bridge at North Division Street or any other location, adding that the War Department 'would certainly demand to know what disposition the State planned to take in regard to the present bay bridge at Ocean City before it would issue any permit'.

In the record (1)

  1. 1938 · 1938-08-15

    Three hundred people packed the Ocean City Pier convention hall in August 1938 for a War Department hearing on the bridge, and twelve of them spoke against it

    Capt. H. T. Miller, District War Department engineer, and Col. John S. Doyle, Senior District Engineer, presided over a public hearing in the Ocean City Pier convention hall on Monday 15 August 1938, 'held to ascertain opinion on the application of the State Roads Commission for a War Department permit to construct a new $450,000 bay bridge at North Division street in Ocean City'. Around three hundred people came, mostly from Ocean City and its neighbourhood. The count was lopsided: 'Two speakers and four documents in favor of granting the State a permit for a North Division street bridge were offset by opposition expressed in ten documents together with verbal statements made by twelve speakers.' Navigation was the only argument that counted. Letters and petitions came from boat captains of St. Martin's River and Isle of Wight Bay, from Ocean City boat captains who offered a petition, and from Trimper's Marine Railway, The Farms Company, Glen Riddle Farms, Peninsula Packing Company, the Beach Gunning Club, the Nordica Hotel, W. Preston Laws and Capt. Thomas T. Moore. Don Harmon, an Ocean City seafood dealer, and Capt. Gilbert of Florida, a party-boat captain, spoke against; so did Capt. Granville Taylor of Crisfield and State Senator Milton L. Veasey. Clarence Carey argued that a North Division Street span 'would be too close to the present Worcester street bridge a few blocks south and would be a menace to navigation'. On the other side, Grice Long, a boat owner and Ocean City summer resident of five years, said 'a bridge at North Division street would be a boon not only to navigation but to traffic'. And Capt. Miller made the ruling that mattered: the State Roads Commission 'must definitely decide whether or not it intends to maintain the present Worcester street bridge at Ocean City, before any permit will be issued by the War Department for a new $450,000 bay bridge at North Division street or any other location.'

    The referendum had been overruled and the town's own council had signed the streets away in June. So the fight moved to the only forum left that had not yet ruled - the federal permit - and the argument stopped being about where Ocean City wanted its bridge and became about what would happen to the bridge it already had.

    Maryland State Roads CommissionClarence CareyW. Preston LawsThomas T. MooreCol. John S. DoyleMilton L. Veasey

    Source · checked 2026-08-11