Beginning to cross the Potomac River, SB on the Governor Harry Nice Memorial Bridge. As you see, it's very steep and narrow (11' lanes instead of the usual 12'). What you don't see is that US 301 is four lanes on either side, making this a major bottleneck that was not anticipated in 1940. So now there are plans in place to twin this bridge slowly advancing through the planning stages.


Looking southeast and northwest on the Potomac River. Maryland controls the entirety of the river based on the low tide mark, so the bridge is owned by the Maryland Transportation Authority.


Continuing south across the interesting part of the bridge. On the left side of the third photo you see a stair case that bridge workers use to inspect the truss.


Returning northbound from Virginia.


Mike Byrnes spied this SB sign that I somehow missed. The West MD 228 needs more room to breathe, and the arrows need a healthy grass-fed diet.


No button copy on the route, but you do get this older SB distance sign.


US 301 joins the important concurrency that you can follow via the big link below. Known mostly for the tall bridge across Chesapeake Bay, US 50/301 is also notable for secretly being I-595. Not only does this designation secure extra Federal funds for projects, but it was conceived for another reason: linking to I-97 to improve Annapolis' connectivity to the Interstate system. For many years, signs were designed with blank spaces as if I-595 was supposed to be signed eventually, but that idea is definitely dead.


Fresh off the US 50 concurrency, here's your first interesting sign, SB in Queenstown.


A bunch of median breaks were closed along US 301, resulting in a "superstreet" situation where through traffic (here on MD 304 WB) has to turn right and U-turn at the next open break. Maryland generously let bicycles continue across without the detour.


Stretched shields SB on the west and east frontage roads, respectively, at MD 291 in Millington. The west road is definitely Edge Rd., but it might be part of secret MD 701, at least from the SB interchange ramps south to 291. The east road is definitely secret MD 701, but since secret roads (and some not-so-secret ones) can exist in a zillion small segments in Maryland, I can't rule out the west one.


These signs (SB and NB respectively, not too far from each other) are too new to use any sort of old font that Maryland may have had, so I'm baffled as to where this came from. It's reminiscent of Massachusetts.

Onto US 301/50/secret I-595

Into Virginia on US 301
Into Delaware on US 301
Onto US 50 alone
To regular MD 5
Back to Maryland Roads
Back to Roads