When Maryland’s replacement for Baltimore’s Key Bridge is completed as expected in 2028, a state lawmaker wants the name to remain (mostly) the same.
Maryland State Sen. Johnny Ray Salling of Baltimore County does not want to remove the connection to Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner.
Salling has proposed legislation in Annapolis, SB 119, that would tweak the bridge’s name slightly, adding “memorial” to the Francis Scott Key Bridge title.
Salling, whose district includes Dundalk, the neighborhood linked to Baltimore by the bridge that collapsed after being struck by a container ship last March, attended Tuesday’s unveiling of the design for the new bridge.
Salling said the new design is “beautiful, I love how it looks,” but is adamant he doesn’t want to see Key’s name stripped from the structure.
In the month following the collapse of the original bridge, the Caucus of African American Leaders of Anne Arundel County requested that Gov. Wes Moore and the General Assembly change the name.
The civic group wanted to, instead, rechristen the bridge after Rep. Parren Mitchell, the first Black congressman from Maryland elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Key was a slaveholder who opposed the trans-Atlantic slave trade and had a complicated record on the issue of slavery. Key defended enslaved people who sought their freedom, but also represented slaveholders who hired him to help recover their “property” — enslaved people who had escaped.
Asked about that aspect of Key’s legacy, Salling told WTOP, “It’s a terrible thing that slavery did happen, I’m not minimizing that at all.”
He said the bridge should retain Key’s name “because of the history of our state,” and “what that bridge meant.”
When the new bridge opens, Salling said, “I’m just going to be in awe.”
He expects to be at the ribbon-cutting and be among the first people to cross the bridge. That, he said, “would be unbelievable.”
Salling’s bill gets a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday afternoon.
A House version of a similar bill has been sponsored by Del. Robert B. Long.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.