History
The Bethesda – Silver Spring Highway was conceived in the late 1920s as a means of directly connecting the two inner suburbs on the north side of Washington. The highway was under construction between 1927 and 1929 and signed as MD 410 by 1930. When completed, MD 410 extended between what was then US 240 in Bethesda and 16th Street in Silver Spring, which had been extended north from the District of Columbia in 1928. Continuing to the present center of Silver Spring required heading south on 16th Street to Blair Portal, then east on Colesville Road, which had been extended to Blair Portal in 1927, to Georgia Avenue. Most of MD 410 was built on a new alignment with the exception of the part between present day MD 186 and Jones Mill Road, which followed the old Brookville Road.
By 1933, the new state highway was the busiest road in Montgomery County. The road, which became known as East–West Highway, was originally built with a width of 20 feet, but the heavy traffic led the Maryland State Roads Commission (SRC), the predecessor of MDSHA, to suggest in 1934 that the road be widened to 40 feet in the near future. SRC also recommended extending East–West Highway through Silver Spring and Takoma Park to Hyattsville. By 1935, the highway was extended along new alignment east from 16th Street to Takoma Park, then placed on Philadelphia Avenue and Ethan Allen Avenue within Takoma Park. The extension to MD 212 in Hyattsville was completed in 1936.
After World War II, MD 410 was extended even further east and saw significant improvement on its extant sections. By 1946, MD 410 was extended over Ager Road, Hamilton Street, 38th Avenue, and Jefferson Avenue, roads then designated MD 209, to a new eastern terminus at US 1 in Hyattsville. In addition, the pre-1946 course saw completion of efforts to widen the road to 40 feet. The highway between Connecticut Avenue (then MD 193) and Georgia Avenue (US 29) was widened in 1946 and 1947. The two segments between Wisconsin Avenue (US 240) and Connecticut Avenue (MD 193) and between MD 650 in Takoma Park and US 1 in Hyattsville were widened in 1950.
Beyond minor improvements, MD 410 in Montgomery County has remained in much the same state since 1950. The only major change was the highway being split onto a one-way pair of streets in Bethesda in 1988. The Prince George's County section has seen more substantial changes over the intervening decades. The first major change in alignment occurred in 1956, when MD 410 was completed on a new alignment as a four-lane divided highway between Ager Road just east of MD 212 and MD 500 at what is now Adelphi Road. The state highway was subsequently extended east over what was previously MD 403, known as Colesville Road, to US 1 in Riverdale.
The next change occurred between 1967 and 1970, when MD 410 was extended as a four-lane divided highway on a new alignment east past MD 201 to the Baltimore–Washington Parkway. This extension bypassed and replaced MD 412 between US 1 and the B-W Parkway. The adjoining segment of MD 410 between MD 500 and US 1 was also upgraded to a multi-lane divided highway by 1970. Finally, MD 410 was extended east on Veterans Parkway past U 50 to its current terminus at Pennsy Drive when that section of highway was completed in 1991.
Read more about this topic: Maryland Route 410
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