Vanishing Ocean City With Bunk Mann

Vanishing Ocean City With Bunk Mann
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Between 1876 and 1933, trains brought passengers to Ocean City over a wooden trestle bridge across the Sinepuxent Bay. The original railroad station, pictured above, was located on Baltimore Avenue and South Division Street and served the town until a larger station was built on Philadelphia Avenue and Wicomico Street in 1903.

In the years prior to the end of World War I, most visitors arrived in Ocean City by train. The automobile bridge was not completed until 1919 and horse drawn wagons and the few early motorized vehicles paid a toll to cross the railroad bridge on planks laid between the rails.

The railroad era came to a sudden halt on Aug. 23, 1933 when a hurricane destroyed the railroad bridge and carved the Inlet. The bridge was never repaired and train service to Ocean City faded into history.

Photo courtesy of the Ocean City Life Saving Station Museum