Page 52 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

Challenge and Expansion
[1974-1980]
O n the heels of Cap’s death came a bomb- shell that would threaten his legacy
of achievements in Canton. In March
of 1974, the Board of Directors met and elected Bud Nixon Vice President and member
of Rukert Terminals. At the same meeting, Norm advised the Board of a problem that could endanger the company, which had been growing for over 50 years. Norm told the Board that a rumored tunnel connecting Fort McHenry National Monument with
Lazaretto Point might in fact be on the horizon. On April 8, 1974, Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer officially endorsed the plan to build an expressway near, but not through, Fort McHenry. An article in The Baltimore Sun included a picture of the tunnel route that would spare the national monument but would instead run right through 75 percent of Rukert’s operation at Lazaretto Terminal.
A notice from the Department of Public Works on November 3, 1975, made it official: Rukert’s
BELOW: Lazaretto in 1978 during the tunnel construction