Maryland Route 3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| MD 3 |
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| (Robert) Crain Highway | |||||||||
| Length: | 9.56 mi (15.39 km) | ||||||||
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| Decomd.: | N/A | ||||||||
| From: |   US 50/US 301 in Bowie |
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| Major junctions: |
 MD 450 near Bowie MD 424 near Crofton MD 175 in Millersville MD 32 near Millersville |
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| To: |  I-97 near Millersville |
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Maryland Route 3, also part of Robert Crain Highway, is the designation given to the former alignment of U.S. Route 301 from Bowie, Maryland, to Baltimore.
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[edit] Counties traversed
[edit] Route description
The route is a direct continuation of the four-lane divided highway previously followed by U.S. 301. North of MD 424, the median between the carriageways is up to 300 feet in width; several fast-food joints occupy the median in this area. The route was upgraded to this format in its persona as U.S. 301 in 1954.
The route is severely congested; attempts to bypass it with new routings have failed. One such routing would have been Interstate 297, a direct freeway link between Interstate 97 and U.S. 50/U.S. 301/I-595.
[edit] Junction list
| County | Location | Mile | Destinations | Notes |
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 begins at and |
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| Prince George's | Bowie | 0.0 |    US 50/US 301 north / John Hanson Highway - Washington D.C. (to   I-95/I-495), Annapolis (to I-97), Bay Bridge |
southern terminus of ; road south of is |
| 2.2 |  Maryland Route 450 west / Annapolis Rd. - Lanham-Seabrook |
former route of ; joins |
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| Anne Arundel | 2.7 |  Maryland Route 450 east / Defense Highway - Annapolis |
former route of ; diverges from |
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| Crofton | 4.7 | Maryland Route 424 east / Davidsonville Rd. - Davidsonville |
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| Millersville | 8.1 | Maryland Route 175 west / Annapolis Rd. - Gambrills |
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| 8.9 |  Maryland Route 32 (to Interstate 97 south) / Patuxent Freeway - Fort Meade |
grade-separated interchange between routes;  ends at  , and is signed as |
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| 9.6 |  Interstate 97 north / Robert Crain Highway - Baltimore (to  I-695 and  I-895 Spur) |
northbound entrance and southbound exit; northern terminus of |
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[edit] History
In the past, Crain Highway originally held the designation MD 3, then U.S. 301, and it currently carries both of these designations on different sections. After the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was built, U.S. 301, which at that time ran along the current alignment of MD 3, was rerouted along U.S. 50, across the Bay Bridge, and north to Wilmington, Delaware, as a bypass around the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. Former U.S. 301 north of U.S. 50 was then given back the MD 3 designation. After the construction of Interstate 97, MD 3 was cut back to I-97/MD 32, which led to the oddity of Maryland Route 3 Business in Glen Burnie being completely orphaned from its parent route. Despite this, the route is still designated Business MD 3 to this day.
Route 3 runs from the US 50/US 301 interchange (the western end of the US 50/301 multiplex) to an interchange with Interstate 97. Business MD 3 begins 9 miles north of MD 3's northern terminus along Interstate 97 and runs through Glen Burnie.
[edit] Notes
- Before the construction of the John Hanson Highway, MD 450's current multiplex with MD 3 would have been a multiplex of U.S. 50 and U.S. 301. US Routes 50 and 301 currently share a much longer multiplex along parts of the John Hanson Highway and Blue Star Memorial Highway.
- The original route of MD 3, completed in 1927 on a greenfield alignment, was once designated Maryland Route 761.
- If MD 3 existed as a continuous route between its original southern end near Cobbs Island (now signed as MD 254 and MD 257) and its original northern end at U.S. 1 in southwestern Baltimore, running via U.S. 301, Interstate 97, a short segment of the Baltimore Beltway and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and Monroe Street in downtown Baltimore, it would be 74.69 miles long. MD 3 was routed via the Beltway and the Parkway to divert it away from city streets; originally it followed the Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard into Baltimore, meeting Monroe Street within today's interchange between the Parkway and Interstate 95.
