History
The designation MD 2 was first used by 1927 for the road running between Solomons Island and Baltimore. The route headed north through Calvert County and into Anne Arundel County, where it headed through Annapolis on what is now MD 450. From there, the route followed present-day MD 648 north to Glen Burnie before continuing north on its present alignment toward downtown Baltimore. In 1939, the four-lane Ritchie Highway, named for former Maryland Governor Albert C. Ritchie, was built between Annapolis and Baltimore and MD 2 was rerouted to this road. The former alignment of MD 2 along Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard between Annapolis and Glen Burnie was designated MD 648 by 1940. Throughout the mid 20th-century, a commercial district developed along MD 2 in Glen Burnie, which included several car dealerships and the Harundale Mall. MD 2 was routed to bypass Annapolis along with US 50 and US 301 on a limited-access highway by 1960, with the former alignment through Annapolis being designated a part of MD 450. By 1975, MD 4 was routed to be concurrent with MD 2 from north of Solomons Island, where it would cross the Patuxent River on the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge that was completed in January 1978, to Sunderland. Also by this time, the route was widened into a divided highway between Prince Frederick and Sunderland and from the South River to US 50/US 301. The divided highway portions of MD 2 were further extended by 1983, with widening occurring between Port Republic and Prince Frederick and between MD 214 and the South River. By the 1990s, MD 2/MD 4 was dualized from the southern spilt north of Solomons Island up to Port Republic. The Ritchie Highway was originally the main route between Baltimore and Annapolis prior to the completion of Interstate 97 in 1995. Originally, MD 10 was intended to provide a limited-access route between Baltimore and Annapolis, but this route was not completed south of Pasadena after it was deemed that an alternative freeway along the Maryland Route 3 corridor (present-day I-97), which required less destruction of residences and businesses, should be built.
In 2010, a project improved the intersection of MD 2-4 and MD 231 in Prince Frederick. This project is a prelude to a larger project to expand MD 2-4 to six lanes between MD 765 south of Prince Frederick and Stoakley Road north of Prince Frederick.
Read more about this topic: Maryland Route 2
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