Page 37 - February 2024 Issue.indd

put the line in the ferry business.

They talked with many Eastern Shore Join the Caroline County GOP for
bankers, industrialists and farmers and
concluded that Chesapeake Beach’s
falling passenger receipts would be
offset by promoting car, truck and

freight traffic between Washington and

the Delmarva Peninsula.
A map printed in a book entitled “Th e
Chesapeake Beach Railway,” shows
the proposed ferries would sail from
Oxford in Talbot County, and up
the Choptank River to Cambridge,
Secretary, Choptank and as far as Keynote Speaker Nicolee Ambrose
Denton.
Political Analyst and Grassroots Activist
The development plan called for the RNC Maryland National Committee Woman
purchase of two steel ferryboats that
could carry 95 cars on the main deck Social Hour • Buffet Dinner • Cash Bar
and 1,800 passengers on the upper, or Silent Auction
saloon level. With slips at Chesapeake
Beach and Trippe’s Bay, some 16 miles
apart, it was calculated that the trip Thursday, February 29 at 6 PM
across the bay would take an hour and American Legion Hall, Post 29
30 minutes less than the ferry operating
between Annapolis and Claiborne. 9238 Legion Road, Denton, MD

Since the Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry $55/person - $100/couple
Company enjoyed a virtual monopoly Please RSVP by February 15. Purchase tickets online at
of trans-Bay traffi c, its offi cials protested www.CarolineGOP.org or make checks payable to
the new venture vigorously.
Caroline County Republican Central Committee
In 1930, the Interstate Commerce and mail to P.O. 246, Denton, MD 21629.
Commission approved the application
of the Chesapeake Beach Railway for Questions? info@carolinegop.org or 410-924-0904
the new ferry service, but the offi cials facebook.com/CarolineGOP | www.CarolineGOP.org
of the older ferry company took it to
court and the legal ranglings dragged
on for two years.
Sponsorship opportunities
It wasn’t until February 18, 1933, the are available.
lowest point of the Great Depression,
that the ICC finally approved a loan Authority: Caroline County Republican Central
of $425,000 to the Chesapeake Beach Committee, Sherry Levengood, Treasurer
Railway to begin its ferry system.

The award came as an anticlimax.
So the dreams of a second ferry line way westward as the crew padlocked
So much time and money had been crossing the Chesapeake Bay and each of the empty depots along the line.
spent in the long legal battle with the picking up passengers and freight as
Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry Company far up the Choptank as Denton died The story of the relatively short life
that the final victory was a hollow a-borning. (35 years) of the Chesapeake Beach
Railway is a sadly familiar one in

one. The directors had decided some
And on April 15, 1935, the final modern railroading.
months earlier that the project could

not be financed at any price, however passenger train out of Chesapeake
favorable the terms might be. Beach to Washington slowly made its
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