A free public program presented at the Talbot County Free Library in Easton at 7:00pm on Wednesday, November 9th.
It has been 70 years since the first Bay Bridge span connected the rural Eastern Shore with the more urban Western Shore of Maryland. Linking Annapolis to Stevensville and then to Ocean City has transformed life on the Eastern Shore in ways both positive and negative, both expected and unimagined.
A panel of speakers with deep roots and broad experience in Maryland will share their thoughts on how life has changed for residents of the Eastern Shore since the opening of this artery of travel and commerce. Steve Kline is President of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. Wayne Gilchrest is an environmental champion and long-serving U.S. Congressman. Jack Broderick is a historian and President of the Kent Island Heritage Society.
Stuart Parnes, Curator of the Oxford Museum and coordinator of this event explains: “It is not an exaggeration to say that the single most significant event in Eastern Shore life over the past 70 years has been the opening of the first Bay Bridge span in 1952. The impacts on the economy, population, and even environment of this region have been permanent and profound. And now we are facing the possible addition of a third span. This conversation could not be more relevant.”
Sponsored by the Oxford Museum in partnership with the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and the Talbot County Free Library. It is one of a series of public programs supporting the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibition ‘Crossroads: Change in Rural America’ which will be open to visitors at St. Paul’s church in Oxford from October 29 through December 16. For more information go to https://www.oxfordmusemmd.org
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