Eugene L. Meyer travels--and pays a buck--on Maryland's only private toll bridge. - Maryland life, Jan-Feb 2006

When the river rises at Oldtown, folks don't worry too much about the street and homes flooding, though that does happen sometimes. They worry more about the bridge.

The narrow, wood-planked Oldtown Toll Bridge over the Potomac connects the Appalachian Maryland hamlet with Green Spring, West Virginia. It is the only privately-owned toll bridge in Maryland. But to residents on boht side of the river, it is not an oddity--it's a lifeline.