History
The Chestertown–Rock Hall highway was one of the roads designated for improvement by the Maryland State Roads Commission in 1909. The highway between Fairlee and near Broad Neck Road was paved in 1915. The gap between Broad Neck Road and Chestertown, including High Street within the town, was constructed in 1917 and 1918. The segment from Fairlee to Shipyard Creek was built in 1918. The remainder of the highway from Shipyard Creek through Rock Hall to Gratitude was completed between 1919 and 1921.
The first major realignment of MD 20 occurred between Fairlee and Shipyard Creek. A straight alignment was constructed between MD 21 and Shipyard Creek, bypassing Sandy Bottom Road and Ricauds Branch Road, by 1927. Also in 1927, MD 20 became one of the original state-numbered highways. The state highway was widened from Chestertown to Rock Hall in 1948 and from Rock Hall to the western terminus in 1954. A new alignment of MD 20 was constructed to the east of Fairlee around 1955. The state highway originally followed Sharp Street and Main Street west to the intersection of Main Street and Rock Hall Avenue in Rock Hall. MD 20 was moved to an eastward extension of Rock Hall Avenue, bypassing the center of Rock Hall, in 1967. MD 20's eastern terminus in downtown Chestertown was retracted to College Avenue in 1985 and to its present terminus at MD 291 in 1989.
MD 20 was also assigned to North Point Road in southeastern Baltimore County as one of the original state-numbered highways in 1927. The state highway was constructed from Edgemere to the community of North Point in Dundalk by 1921. MD 20 was extended north to US 40 in Baltimore and south toward Fort Howard in 1923. The state highway's southern terminus was at the intersection of North Point Road with an interurban that connected Baltimore with Bay Shore Amusement Park, a summer resort that operated between 1906 and 1947 within what is now North Point State Park. Between 1923 and 1927, a ferry operated between the amusement park and Rock Hall that briefly indirectly connected the two MD 20s. The portion of MD 20 from Edgemere to Baltimore was bypassed by MD 151 between 1940 and 1944; MD 151 was extended north from Edgemere as a four-lane divided highway as a defense access project to better connect Baltimore with the Bethlehem Steel complex at Sparrows Point. The remaining disjoint sections of MD 20 between Fort Howard and Baltimore were removed from the state highway system by 1999.
Read more about this topic: Maryland Route 20
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