Maryland Route 3 Information & Maryland Route 3 Links at HealthHaven.com

	Maryland Route 3
	(Robert) Crain Highway; Maintained by MDSHA
Length:	9.56 mi[1] (15.39 km)
South end:	US 50/US 301 in Bowie
Major; junctions:	MD 450 near Bowie and Crofton; MD 424 near Crofton; MD 175 in Millersville; MD 32 near Millersville
North end:	I-97 near Millersville
	Highways in Maryland
< MD 2	MD 4 >
	State highways - Minor - Former - Turnpikes

This article is about the Maryland state highway. For the Baltimore area bus route, see MTA Maryland Route 3.

"MD 3" redirects here. For the congressional district, see Maryland's 3rd congressional district.

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, USA, to Baltimore. It is named for Robert Crane of Baltimore.

[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 (91 m) in width; several fast-food restaurants 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] History

MD 3 southbound in Crofton during a snowstorm

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.

Started in 1922, Crain Highway was a new road built by the Maryland State Road Commission and ran from Baltimore to Southern Maryland. It was completed in 1927. With the opening of the Potomac River Bridge in 1940 it was joined with U.S. Route 301^[1]. After the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was built in 1952, 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 concurrency) to an interchange with Interstate 97. Business MD 3 begins 9 miles (14 km) north of MD 3's northern terminus along Interstate 97 and runs through Glen Burnie.

[edit] Junction list

County	Location	Mile	Destinations	Notes
Prince George's	Bowie	0.0	US 50 / US 301 south (John Hanson Highway) – Washington D.C., Annapolis, Bay Bridge	Southern terminus of MD 3; road continues as US 301 south
Prince George's		2.2	MD 450 west (Annapolis Road) – Lanham-Seabrook	Former route of US 50; south end of MD 3/MD 450 overlap
Anne Arundel		2.7	MD 450 east (Defense Highway) – Annapolis	Former route of US 50; north end of MD 3/MD 450 overlap
	Crofton	4.7	MD 424 east (Davidsonville Road) – Davidsonville
	Millersville	8.1	MD 175 west (Annapolis Road) – Gambrills
		8.9	I-97 south / MD 32 west (Patuxent Freeway) – Fort Meade	Grade-separated interchange between routes
		9.6	I-97 north (Robert Crain Highway) – Baltimore	Northbound entrance and southbound exit; northern terminus of MD 3

[edit] Notes

Before the construction of the John Hanson Highway, the section where MD 450 currently overlaps with MD 3 would have been an overlapped section of U.S. 50 and U.S. 301. US Routes 50 and 301 currently overlap for a much longer distance 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 Cobb 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Maryland's Highways Centennial

[edit] External links

MD 3 @ MDRoads.com

[0] Maryland's Highways Centennial

[1]

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