WB and EB at the Massachusetts line. W is for Winchendon and R is for Rindge.


EB from there. Contrast the new and old shields and ignore NH's practice of signing every junction as if you're not on the route. In this case, I'm on both routes, so it's doubly wrong.

Every state gets one mistake? (Still EB.)


Another EB concurrency, another unnecessary "JUNCTION". At least in the third photo, I'm not already on 9.


The US 202/NH 9 EB multiplex starts off as a bypass of Hillsborough, new at the beginning of this millennium. (If this webpage survives till the year 3000, remind me to change this caption.) I don't care how new the sign is, replace it.


New York and Vermont have frequent, relatively easily understood little reference markers along their routes. New Hampshire has a few of these left, but they're difficult to decipher because of their infrequency and are usually in even worse condition than this. Ian Ligget uncovered the information from the mouth of NHDOT: "These were called 'Accident Reference Markers.' The top line is the numerical reference to the town, based on an alphabetical listing. The second line is the road inventory number. The third line is the mileage (to the nearest 1/10 mile) from the town line on that route." Clearly the inventory number was unrelated to the route number.


WB at the NH 103 junction in Hopkinton. Every New England state had distance signs like this, and any town that still has them paints them in arbitrary, locally relevant colors. Each state used its own seal, this being the old version of the "Seal of the Republic of New Hampshire," clearly a phrase predating the American Revolution and since unfortunately superseded by English.


The EB face of the sign has been painted over completely, no great loss now because traffic can't see it, but judging from the broken bottom, it was once probably mounted in a location where it was important that these directions were legible.


On the south side of the road across from the end of NH 103.


Now into Concord, WB at Fruit St. and EB.


1960's shields? WB and EB in western Concord; click on each for a closeup.


You want old shields? You want to click on each one for a closeup? Check out these unique beauties, WB at State St. NH 103 used to begin downtown, but has since been truncated to the junction to the west where you saw the old blue directional sign. Click on each of the three signs for a closeup, showing that the US-NH 9 was a stop sign in a past life, as likely was US 202 as well.


US 202/NH 9 EB at US 3. But that looks like a 4. It should be 3/202/9 TO 4.


US 202 leaves NH 9 briefly to meet US 4 and follow I-393. At the western end, it comes back to NH 9 via US 3 SB. The Interstate shield is of particular note, so click on this photo for a closeup of it.


And here, US 202 leaves US 3 NB. It also joins US 4, so there should be another shield on this sign.


East of I-393, US 202 is now joined with US 4 and once again NH 9, so every multiplex looks crowded. And you still can't junction the routes you're already on, even when you're on four of them at once.


WB from the eastern end of the US 4 concurrency to the western end near the beginning of I-393.


See, the older signs don't have JUNCTION on them because they know that's wrong. Good signs. After this, US 202 joins NH 16 and NH 11 to the Maine state line, so the page ends here and follow the links below for more.

Onto I-393 and US 202/US 4/I-393
Onto NH 16 and US 202/NH 16
NH 11 and US 202/NH 11
Onto US 4 alone
Onto NH 9 alone

Into Massachusetts on US 202
Into Maine on US 202
Onto NH 123
Onto NH 103
Onto US 3
To I-93
Back to New Hampshire Roads
Back to Roads