Marked north-south to south of Reisterstown, east-west to west of Reisterstown.

Comprises former US 140 between Baltimore and Westminster. West of 97, 140 took over the former routing of MD 32.

Associated Secret-Obscure Routes:
526 832 890 904

NHS:
From I-795 northwest to US 15.

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Decommissioned 1979. Portion north of Westminster became MD 97, southeast of Westminster toward Baltimore became MD 140.

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No longer assigned, decommissioned in 1960, transferred to Baltimore County maintenance.

Four current or former state routes (five if you count US 111) radiate from the Towson Roundabout, of which Allegheny Ave. is the western approach. For the record, the routes are the current MD 45 and former US 111, York Rd. to the south and northwest; MD 146, Dulaney Valley Rd. to the north; Allegheny Ave., former MD 141 to the west; and East Joppa Rd., former MD 148, to the east.

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No longer assigned. Harford Co. portion decommissioned 1955, Baltimore Co. portions decommissioned 1979.

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No longer assigned (decommissioned 1982).

The break in state maintenance occurred where Warren Road entered Baltimore City property and maintenance. Dropped in 1982 when SHA picked up the gap in MD 145 to the north. (The water service and outlying reservoirs are maintained by the city.) MD 143 is still reflected in the choice of MD 943 as the new unsigned number for Warren Road's extension west to I-83 Exit 18.

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Marked east-west.

Route 144 is the number given to all old sections of US 40 not otherwise marked Alt, Bus, or Scenic 40.

The number given to all former segments of US 40 west of Baltimore that for whatever reason cannot be classified as Alternate, Business, or Scenic 40.

Associated Secret-Obscure Routes: 771 999?

The incarnations of MD 144 (east to west, away from Baltimore):
These are only the currently state maintained stretches. There may have been more such segments in the past. I've probably missed some small ones, but I won't know till I look at the SHA grid maps.

1. Frederick Rd. from US 1 in Southwest Baltimore west to Baltimore-Howard county line. This stretch was once US 29-Alt US 40. The adjacent Howard County portion from Ellicott City to US 40 is not state maintained. However, just west of the US 40 junction state maintenance resumes.
2. also Frederick Rd., from US 40 west to MD 27 south of Mt. Airy. Longest stand-alone stretch, as opposed to frontage for I-70/US 40, and a good drive to boot. There's a roundabout at the junction of MD 94 in Lisbon. West of Mt. Airy, state maintenance disappears, as does 144.
3. Old National Pike, short stretch from MD 75 junction west to western limit of the town of New Market. Quite unusual; state maintained within town limits and not so outside them.
4. Old National Pike, Patrick St. (Frederick), from I-70 Exit 59 to US 40 in Frederick. The old pike becomes Alt. US 40 west of Frederick, but 144 lives further west....
5. W. Washington St., Hagerstown, from US 40 in northwest Hagerstown back to US 40 on the other side of I-81. Looks like a shortcut if you don't need to get on 81.
6. Main St., Hancock and Western Pike, from I-70 Exit 3 west through Hancock to near I-68 Exit 77.
7. stretch from I-68 Exit 62 to Cumberland, More on these last two later, when I get their street names through Hancock and Cumberland.

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No longer assigned (decommissioned 194x).

MD 146 in the area of Loch Raven Reservoir was once a 'break' in the route; in the 1930s, the southern part from the reservoir down to Towson was numbered 144. MD 146 then only consisted of the Jarrettsville Pike portion of the modern route. Most parts of what we now call 144 were still US 40 back then.

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Marked east-west.

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Marked north-south.

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Marked north-south.

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No longer assigned. Western terminus truncated to MD 542 in December 1959, remainder in July 1962.

Now a shopping strip almost its entire length, the 148 designation still appeared on ADC atlases as late as 1983. I was surprised to find out how early this was dropped. Joppa offers an alternative for northeast side Beltway traffic to Towson. Westbound traffic takes a beating every morning rush hour, especially around several close traffic lights in the vicinity of Harford Rd. (MD 147) and Perring Parkway (MD 41). It's not half as bad in the afternoon rush, though. In any case, a road that was dropped as soon as it was anything other than rural, it now serves more traffic than ever as a numbered route. I would have kept at least the part east of MD 41 Perring Parkway, where I-695 begins to veer southward, making Joppa a tempting corner to Bel Air and points north on US 1.

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Status: Decommissioned 1965 (SRC Min. 09-06-1960, effective 05-21-1965).

Although Ebenezer Rd. is a through route between US 40 and MD 150, every old official map shows MD 149 as not reaching US 40. It was in two pieces along Ebenezer, the first roughly from just west of Bird River Rd. east to Earls Bach Rd., and the second a short piece from the old Amtrak crossing to MD 150 in Chase. Baltimore County bypassed this old crossing with a bridge in 1982.

Ebenezer Rd. crossed the Northeast Corridor tracks about 1 mile west of the site of the collision and derailment that killed 16 Amtrak passengers on January 4, 1987.

There is still a grade crossing to the north along the B&O tracks between US 40 and MD 7 (that section wasn't part of 149). This was the original Whitemarsh station, and the original town of Whitemarsh, sometimes called Cowenton, as opposed to White Marsh (zip 21162), the spelling used for the mall and as a catch-all for the suburban development between US 40 and US 1 that isn't otherwise Perry Hall (21128), Rosedale (21237) or Nottingham (21236). These zip codes are so tangled with each other, it borders on gerrymandering.

I seem to be more into zip codes than roads here, but these are some issues people need to know if, say, they're having trouble finding a local address on Google Maps. Not only do we have tangled zips, but as you'll see next, we also have close duplicate road names.

[Chase] is denoted above because there is another Ebenezer Rd to the west in Perry Hall. It extends east directly across US 1 from Joppa Rd (the part that was MD 148). It used to dead end, but now connects to very busy Honeygo Blvd. To confuse things further, to the north of [Perry Hall] Ebenezer Rd, there is a parallel Joppa Rd between US 1 and MD 7. From this Joppa Rd just east of Honeygo Blvd is Cowenton Rd, which connects directly across MD 7 to [Chase] Ebenezer Rd. The two Ebenezers may have connected in some manner in pre-automobile times.

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Never built in its entirety. Section completed is now part of I-695.

The Windlass Freeway was to run east from I-95 Exit 60 (Moravia Rd.) to an extended MD 43 north of Middle River. What was built was made part of MD 695 and later I-695. The rest was officially killed in the mid seventies. SHA planning documents of the time referred to the proposed Windlass as Maryland 149.

A part of this route was built between the Patapsco and Southeast Freeways in the late sixties, later pieced together to create a makeshift east side of the Baltimore Beltway. The Windlass east of this point and the Patapsco south of it were linked, creating the 'big bend' near the Chesaco Ave. overpass, marking what would have been the Windlass-Patapsco interchange; this is why there's no Exit 37 on I-695 today. 

At the east end of the completed segment (Exit 36 with MD 702) there are stubs of 'ghost ramps' on 702 and a long two-lane flyover ramp on the mainline outer loop. On I-95, short stubs remain at the Moravia Rd. exit (60), blocked by Jersey barriers.

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Marked east-west.

Bengies Drive-In along MD 150, looking west, one of the last drive-ins in the East. The message pertains to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. (photo 10-31-98)

Eastern Avenue does not carry MD 150 all the way to downtown Baltimore, although it should run west to President St. Then again, the argument could be made that 150 doesn't enter Baltimore City at all.

Within Baltimore City, Route 150 takes an elaborate course rarely followed for its own sake. It begins at the intersection of Monument St and Pulaski Hwy (US 40), proceeds west (we're officially going eastbound) a few blocks to the duo of Haven and Kresson Streets. Haven is one way southbound ('east' on 150) and Kresson one way north ('west' on 150). They intersect Lombard St three blocks apart where 150 east finally begins to head the right direction. It takes one last southbound detour on Ponca St, parallel to I-895, a few blocks to Eastern Ave.

None of this is signposted at all in Baltimore City except on the overhead signs for I-95 Exit 59. You must look at old official maps and/or the route log to know this is the proper course of 150. They are the only 150 signs located in the city proper. Just east of the exit, Eastern crosses out into Baltimore County and SHA maintenance and ample 150 signage begins.

Eastern Blvd then serves as the main drag through Essex and Middle River. In 1942, as part of the Defense Highways Act, part of Eastern was dualized and rerouted east of Essex. This provided improved access to the Martin Aircraft plant (now Martin State Airport) in Middle River. Until it was purchased by the state, Martin was the nation's largest private airfield. The old route became Old Eastern Ave MD 600, which it retained until 1970.

At the same time, the new sections of Eastern, from the Back River bridge all the way to Carroll Island Rd, was changed from avenue to boulevard, to indicate a change in house numbering. It goes from the city up to 8000 or so Eastern Ave, then numbering restarts at 1 Eastern Blvd in Essex, going up to 3500 or so Eastern Blvd, then at Carroll Island Rd becomes 11000 or so Eastern Ave Extended, picking up where it would be had it been continous from Baltimore City. Similar arrangements exist for other Baltimore suburbs, but none involve a change of road name.

Eastern Ave Extended is a 2 lane road east from Carroll Island Rd east to the end of state maintenance in Chase, at the intersection with Graces Quarters Road and what used to be Ebenezer Road when it was a grade railroad crossing. This piece of Ebenezer between Eastern and the tracks was a part of the former MD 149.

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Marked north-south.

North Point Blvd, like Eastern Blvd, was built to improve access to critical war manufacturing, in this case the Bethlehem Steel plant at Sparrows Point. The original 151 only consisted of Sparrows Point Rd from Old North Point Rd (former MD 20) in Edgemere southwest to the steel mill. MD 20 was, before the war, the only access to this area. The new North Point Blvd was given the 151 number and part of the old route used was, until 1999-2000, numbered MD 718. MD 151's function was partially supplanted in 1974 by the eastern section of I-695, which acts as something of a parallel bypass of 151.

There was some uncertainty as to where the southern terminus of 151 was, besides generally being within the Severstal (formerly Mittal, formerly Bethlehem Steel) Sparrows Point Plant. Overhead signage announces that you're entering private property, but the road remains state maintained up to the first traffic signal at 7th Street. The numbered streets are a remnant of the old company town of Sparrows Point that the mill gradually swallowed up during its expansion in the middle of the 20th century. There was once a sign here stating that vehicle tags were required beyond that point. One can continue south to the end of Sparrows Point Blvd without encountering a gate (there is a county fire station across from the plant), and 151 may have continued all the way down, but there is no indication of this.

The plant itself, like all U.S. manufacturing, has been on a long-term downward slide. The plant that once employed enough workers to necessitate two county toll bridges over Bear Creek, at Dundalk Ave (demolished), and Peninsula Expressway (upgraded to MD 157 in 1999) now employs less than 2000. Everything has essentially shut down with the exception of the tin mill.

Sections of MD 151:
MD 151A: [no name] 0.26 mi.; from MD 151 east to Sparrows Point Rd (Former MD 718.)
MD 151B: Wharf Rd 0.60 mi.; from MD 151 interchange north to MD 158. Interchange with MD 151 makes for an interesting specimen of spaghetti.

Gray's the mood… MD 151 southbound, Sparrows Point. (picture 10/19/10)

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Marked north-south.

Marking the beginning of Harford County's allocation of numbers (152-165), 152 parallels the southwestern edge of the county. It has become more congested in recent years between I-95 and US 1 with increased development. In some parts it has been widened from 2 to 3 lanes.

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No longer assigned, entire route now part of MD 17.

Created when MD 17 between US 40 and Alt US 40 was dropped from state maintenance. The northern remnant of 17 was designated MD 153. Later, around 1986, the lost stretch was reclaimed, and 17 returned to its original length.

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No longer assigned (decommissioned 193x), entire route now MD 924.

Disappeared quickly; only reference to this 153 being in a 30s operating budget.

In the 1930s, MD 24 only existed north of Bel Air, its southern end being at (old) MD 23 in Forest Hill. Apparently the part of 24-924 between Bel Air and Forest Hill didn't exist or wasn't a state route (even now, it looks a bit newer and open); south of town the Emmorton Rd portion was complete, and it was designated 153.

By 1940, well before gas station maps showed any appreciable detail to know for sure, Route 24 had swallowed up the whole thing.

When we get to the southern end near Edgewood, it ended at what is now MD 7 and likely then US 40, as Pulaski Hwy hadn't yet been completed. South of MD 7, there was the current MD 755 (then 408) to complete the course of modern Route 24.

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No longer assigned (decommissioned 195x).

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Marked east-west.

Associated Secret-Obscure Routes:
753

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Marked east-west.

Routes 155 and 156 may have swapped places in the 40s or 50s.

Marked north-south.

An expressway in name only, this road picked up by SHA along with 158 in the early nineties. Originally ending at the southern end of the Peninsula Bridge over Bear Creek, SHA in 1999 has picked up maintenance of the rest of Peninsula Expwy. and also Merritt Blvd north of same, forming an L shaped route going all the way north to I-695 Exit 39. Peninsula Expwy. was built over Bear Creek as one of two bridges, the extinct Dundalk Ave. being the other. Both these bridges once carried a 15 cent toll. On the north side of the bridge you can see the old toll booth building.

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No longer assigned (decommissioned 198x).

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Marked east-west.

Parallels I-695 Key Bridge approach, which is being changed from 2 lane overpass to 4 lanes at ground level, and 158 has to be reconfigured to accommodate.

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No longer assigned (decommissioned 198x), most of road no longer exists.

Most of this road no longer exists, having been removed for a subdivision. Southern terminus was at US 40 near the Bata shoe factory west of Aberdeen.

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Marked east-west.

MD 159 took over the part of MD 7 between it and US 40 when the latter was dropped from state maintenance from Old Philadelphia Rd east of 159 to Aberdeen.

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