“Tomorrow morning, with no more ceremony than the post of a notice,” the Wilmington Sunday Morning Star announced on Nov. 18, 1923, “one of the most important public works ever undertaken in the State of Delaware will have reached its practical conclusion.
“The last concrete has been poured on the Du Pont Boulevard … With this simple announcement, one of the greatest gifts ever made by an individual to the people of his state will became an actual fact, and the work of over twelve years of tireless effort ended.”
The newspaper went on to explain, “By means of this wonderful highway, Delaware farmers are enabled to get their crops out to the best markets; over it travels much of the business of the State; it has more closely knit the bonds that unite the citizens of the state; and pleasure seekers have found this fine stretch of highway one of the best in the East.”
Many of the roads of rural Delaware originated as narrow forest paths that the Native Americans established long before the first European colonists arrived. The trails were widened into roads, but in wet weather, Delaware’s unpaved “highways” became muddy quagmires that made land travel nearly impossible.
When the first horseless carriages appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, the poor condition of Delaware’s roads made driving long distances an intimidating challenge.
By 1911, cars were becoming commonplace, when T. Coleman du Pont announced an extraordinary plan to build a divided, paved highway from one end of Delaware to the other; and to present it as his gift to the state. Over a decade later, in 1923, the highway was completed, and it was used by vehicles carrying cargo that no one foresaw.
A week before Christmas in 1925, six empty trucks started from Philadelphia; and when they reached the southern edge of Wilmington, they began to drive on the northern leg of the Du Pont Boulevard (Route 13). Just south of Dover, Route 13 intersected with Route 113, which formed the southern leg of the Du Pont Boulevard.
Using the new highway, the empty trucks crossed into Maryland at near Selbyville, and from there they headed for the beach at Ocean City, where they would pick up their clandestine cargo.
In 1925, Prohibition banning the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages, was in full force; but bootleggers continued to land illegal booze on deserted Delmarva beaches. December was the height of the offseason, and there were few people in Ocean City to interfere with the delivery of the illegal hootch.
A small fleet of 20 fast motor boats had successfully unloaded a horde of bootleg liquor on the Maryland sand. Both the rumrunners and the enforcement agents had their sources within the other’s operations. A snitch alerted government officials that a big delivery of booze was going to be made on the Ocean City beach, and 22 agents were dispatched from Washington, D. C. to intercept the illegal alcohol.
At that time, crossing the Chesapeake Bay required a lengthy ride on a ferry, and reaching Ocean City from Washington took a half day or more. On the other hand, an informer in cahoots with the bootleggers could make a simple phone call to Salisbury that would enable a messenger to reach the rumrunners in Ocean City in plenty of time.
Knowing that the agents were on their way, the bootleggers quickly loaded their trucks with the illegal cargo valued at $200,000 and headed out of town. The bootleggers believed that the government agents might pursue them on the Du Pont Boulevard, so they swung westward and used back roads to reach Philadelphia, where the hooch, perhaps “the greatest gift”, was delivered in time for the Christmas holidays.
Principal sources
Sunday Morning Star, Nov. 18, 1923.
State Register, Dec. 18, 1925.
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