In 1938, the Maryland State Roads Commission (SRC) commissioned an engineering study, Maryland's Primary Bridge Program, to examine feasibility of major bridges across significant transportation barriers, including a bridge crossing the Patapsco River southeast of the Inner Harbor. Another study in 1944 examined the idea of a bridge with limited-access approach roads running from US 1 in Elkridge to the Patapsco River crossing and from the bridge to US 40 near Erdman Avenue in east Baltimore. The financial resources for the project were established in 1947 when the Maryland General Assembly passed an act allowing for the pooling of revenue bonds and toll receipts between the state's toll facilities—the existing Potomac River Bridge and Susquehanna River Bridge, and the upcoming Chesapeake Bay Bridge—to finance the construction of the Patapsco River Crossing. Finally, a 1953 study examined three different routes—Canton-Fairfield, Canton-Fort McHenry, and a Canton-Fort McHenry-Fairfield dual crossing option—and whether the crossing should be a bridge or tunnel.