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U.S. Route 1 north - Baltimore to Pennsylvania line
U.S. Route 1 north - Baltimore to Pennsylvania line
U.S. Route 1 forges northward toward the community of Perry Hall in eastern Baltimore County, just past its intersection with Silver Spring Road. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Known here as Belair Road, a name it takes from the intersection of North Avenue in east-central Baltimore to just outside of its namesake town of Bel Air in Harford County, US 1 runs mostly straight through the Perry Hall area, but with several changes in elevation and commercial development galore. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
After intersecting several side streets, the route encounters the Perry Hall Centre which has its own traffic light at its main entrance. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Belair Road then encounters the end of the western leg of Joppa Road, which heads toward county seat Towson via Parkville, and a disjoint segment of Ebenezer Road, whose name reappears to the southeast in Middle River off U.S. Route 40. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Just north of that sits a light at India Avenue, a residential street, and the beginning of East Joppa Road, which one can take to Maryland Route 7 outside of White Marsh. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 now passes through a highly residential section of Perry Hall. Due to the lack of shoulders, mailboxes here are positioned sideways on the sidewalk, just like on Silver Spring Road nearby. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The speed limit is 40 miles per hour as a signal for Perry Hall's fire station sits ahead. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
A "new" traffic light (SHA has a history of forgetting to take these signs down) sits at a retail area in the distance. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The light sits at Klausmier Road, and sits just past the garage of the Klausmeier family, one of whose members, Johnny, has been a crew chief for a NASCAR team co-owned by Tony Stewart. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The route's center left-turn lane lingers, and it now approaches a light at Baker Lane and Chapel Road. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Baker Lane leads toward Gunpowder Elementary School, while Chapel Road goes back in the direction of East Joppa Road, which intersects Honeygo Boulevard just east of that. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 reassurance sits just past that signal, at a separate light serving the Perry Hall North retail strip. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The route subsequently intersects a now-disconnected stub of Forge Road, which was severed by Honeygo's construction. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The north end of Honeygo Boulevard is US 1's final traffic light in the Perry Hall hub. Honeygo's extension from Ebenezer Road outside of White Marsh was completed in 2010. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
As it curves and descends into a heavily forested area, US 1 intersects Perry Hall Road, which was extended in 2016 to facilitate construction of the Gunpowder Overlook subdivision. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The median temporarily disappears as the route approaches Miller Road. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 now becomes a divided highway as a rock formation sits next to the right side of the highway. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
It then approaches a crossing of Gunpowder Falls and a Gunpowder Falls State Park trailhead. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The road now prepares to consolidate back into a two-way trafficway. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
A traffic light with Mount Vista Road sits just ahead, after a slight curve and uphill climb. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
K.P. Huber's produce stand on the north side of the signal gives this intersection a rural touch. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The route continues north, still at 50 miles per hour. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
As it approaches Kingsville, the speed drops to 40 miles per hour. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The highway intersects Cheryl Avenue as it enters the Kingsville hub. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The speed limit drops as the route goes slightly uphill. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The route passes by a car dealership in between intersections with Longfield Drive and Goettner Road. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
As it heads into Kingsville's center, US 1 passes by the Kingsville Plaza shopping center. It then comes up on intersections with Jerusalem Road as well as Sunshine Avenue to the left and Bradshaw Road to the right. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
At the light ahead, Jerusalem Road heads toward the historic Jerusalem Mill and a Gunpowder Falls trailhead, indirectly to the Jericho covered bridge, and out to Maryland Route 152 in Harford County. Sunshine Avenue becomes Fork Road at Maryland Route 147; Fork Road in turn becomes Baldwin Mill Road, which assumes State Highway Administration maintenance as Maryland Route 165 just north of Baldwin. Bradshaw Road meanwhile passes through the hamlet of Upper Falls, crosses Interstate 95 and dead-ends past Maryland Route 7. From US 1 north, Sunshine is only accessible through a right turn onto Jerusalem and then left on Bradshaw back to the US 1 light. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Kingsville light behind it, US 1 forges northeast toward its next big hub, Bel Air. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
After a short uphill, the route descends slightly. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
As it passes the Kings Court Motel, the speed limit remains 40 for the time being. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The speed has now increased back to 50, with houses lining either side of the highway. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
An intersection with New Cut Road approaches; its position along the highway is tricky enough for it to be announced by this overhead mast-mounted sign with flashers. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Past New Cut Road, US 1 proceeds sharply downhill into trees, marking another portion of Gunpowder Falls State Park. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The route has a slight S-curve near the bottom of the hill. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
At the bottom of the hill, the highway comes across the head of the Little Gunpowder trail. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 now prepares to cross the Little Gunpowder Falls into Harford County. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
A moderate uphill curve follows the bridge; slower traffic is directed to remain in the right lane. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Harford County's first US 1 reassurance. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
A crossroads with Reckord Road approaches, at which the safe speed is 40. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The Reckord intersection is augmented by a set of flashers, which was erected around 2006. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The route then intersects Wilgis Road, leading into the community of Pleasant Hills, at the site of Log Cabin Candies' facility. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 goes uphill as it approaches its intersection with Maryland Route 152. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Monkton's Ladew Gardens are a drive several miles leftward; meanwhile Jerusalem Mill and its accompanying historic village can again be reached by backtracking onto MD 152 south. A center cable barrier is present here. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
MD 152 goes north through the sprawling residential area of Fallston to MD 146 south of Madonna, which is west of Jarrettsville. MD 152 also goes south to I-95, intersecting US 40 outside of Joppatowne, and to the western entrance of Aberdeen Proving Ground's Edgewood Arsenal. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 reassurance follows the MD 152 light it is now in a busy commercial area that represents the south side of Fallston. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The route has a flashing intersection with Milton Avenue, which used to serve the Fallston General Hospital. It was replaced with Bel Air's Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in 2000, and the "Hospital" arrow on the flashers now points straight to reflect this. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The next light, Fallston Boulevard, serves a Walmart and a residential community. Several car dealerships also line this section of the highway. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
After going downhill and a curve to the left, US 1 intersects Connolly Road to the left, leading to the Benson post office, and Whitaker Mill Road right. Whitaker Mill has a truss crossing over Winters Run and becomes Ring Factory Road, serving subdivisions on the south side of Bel Air. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 now approaches a signal intersecting the north end of Maryland Route 147 (Harford Road) and the south end of U.S. Route 1 Business, which assumes the Belair Road name at the intersection. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The markers for each intersecting route sit here. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The route has reached the intersection in question. MD 147 heads south back toward and into the city of Baltimore. US 1 Business, shown here with a green-on-white marker, used to be mainline US 1's path into downtown Bel Air until the mid-1960s, when the Bel Air Bypass opened. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The names of each intersecting road are displayed on the signal mast. US 1 now becomes the Bel Air Bypass, passing to the west of the center of Bel Air, the seat of Harford County. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 reassurance flanks the route as it expands into a four-lane divided highway, initially with a concrete median, which shortly turns into a grassy one. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Rising Sun in the northern part of neighboring Cecil County is 27 miles from this sign. Downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an 81-mile drive away, the entire distance from this point covered by US 1. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The speed limit is now 50 miles per hour. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The excess asphalt in the median here is a ramp stub from when US 1 was planned to be a full freeway the entire way between Baltimore and Philadelphia. The ramp was planned to be part of a partial interchange between the freeway and Belair Road, which mainline US 1 would have run separate from had the freeway been built in its entirety. Part of the Perring Parkway in northeast Baltimore and Parkville, and the Kennett Oxford Bypass in Chester County, Pennsylvania represent other sections that ended up being built. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The Bel Air Bypass is one of Maryland's designated headlight use corridors; this was once of the safety enhancement efforts put in place in the wake of a November 2008 fatal accident on the bypass about two miles north of this. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The right lane ends ahead as US 1 prepares to converge back into a two-lane undivided trafficway. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
As the right lane ends, a sign announces a forthcoming exit ramp from the bypass to southbound Maryland Route 24, leading a few miles southward to Interstate 95 and the Edgewood area. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
While the southbound lane remains a straight shot here, the northbound carriageway curves considerably to the left as the divided highway ends. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Now a single carriageway, US 1 crosses over Winters Run, which as Otter Point Creek further south, is a tributary of the Bush River. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The southbound MD 24 exit is a quarter of a mile away. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Before the exit, US 1 climbs up a steep hill, and this brown sign - one of many across Maryland directing travelers to various points of interest across the state - notifies that Rocks State Park in northern Harford County as well as Bel Air's historic landmarks can be accessed via the next interchange, just further to the north. Maryland Route 924, explained a few photos down, is marked for the first time on the bypass here. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
After crossing over Tollgate Road, a second northbound lane opens up for the MD 24 exit ramp. This ramp is part of an uncoventional interchange that opened in 1987 along with the current MD 24 corridor from here to I-95; it includes a traffic signal between ramps covered below. The Upper Chesapeake hospital is noted toward the bottom of the gantry pole, and by now, mile markers reflecting US 1's distance from the Baltimore County line have begun to line the highway; mile marker 4 sits just beyond the gantry. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The ramp to MD 24 south leaves US 1, and the second northbound lane lingers until just past the forthcoming traffic signal. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 splits back into a divided highway with concrete median as the southbound carriageway's second lane disappears. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Ahead of the signal, a sign notes that the right lane disappears past the signal. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The traffic signal is where MD 24 south splits from US 1 south and connects with the above-mentioned ramp from US 1 north into Bel Air's retail district. It is a so-called seagull intersection where traffic continuing on US 1 south rather than turning onto MD 24 south does not have to stop at the light, whereas northbound US 1 traffic does have to deal with the light. The movements from US 1 south to MD 24 south and from MD 24 north to US 1 south cross over each other, and are thus not permitted simultaneously. This intersection is not intended to facilitate movements from MD 24 north to US 1 north, as those are provided by a long exit ramp to the north of here. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Past the signal, drivers are once again reminded to merge left if they are still in the right lane. This signage has gone through multiple iterations over the years in order to keep up with SHA's design guidelines and people's driving patterns. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The concrete median now becomes a guardrail; this was added in 2012 in response to the aforementioned 2008 accident. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
A forthcoming five-ramp interchange serves Maryland Route 924 south into downtown Bel Air and Maryland Route 24 north toward Forest Hill. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
This stretch of US 1 remains a mandatory headlight use area. While the bypass contains two southbound lanes here in anticipation of the MD 24 signal, US 1 north remains a single lane for now. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The cross road at the interchange ahead, for both routes, is Rock Spring Road. This sign further explains that it becomes Rocks Road via MD 24 north and Bel Air's Main Street via MD 924 south (in fact, it becomes Rock Spring Avenue beforehand, roughly at Bel Air's corporate limits, a distance north of downtown). Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The long ramp which takes northbound MD 24 traffic onto the bypass becomes visible after US 1 emerges from the woods. The ramp has its own sign informing drivers to turn on their headlights regardless of light or weather condition. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
These signs warn of the impending ramp merge. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The ramp now becomes a second northbound lane for the bypass, and MD 24 is now fully concurrent with US 1. An advance sign for the exit for MD 924 south sits here, with the Vale Road overpass in the distance. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
A dual US 1/MD 24 route shield sits just past the overpass. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
This brown sign, which the State Highway Administration uses to promote points of interest across Maryland, states that Rocks State Park is an eight-mile drive north on MD 24. Included at the bottom is a pictorial notation for the Fiore winery on Harford County's northern fringes. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
A mounted overhead sign states the MD 924 ramp sits just ahead. MD 924 was MD 24's original alignment through downtown Bel Air before its current divided highway alignment bypassed it in 1987. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
An exit sign and mile marker in the ramp's gore. The onramp from MD 24 south to US 1 south lies just behind. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The right northbound lane then prepares to become the cloverleaf ramp on which MD 24 north leaves the bypass. That ramp was added in 1983; beforehand, both directions of Rock Spring Road/Avenue were accessed from the previous ramp. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1's 5.8 mile marker for Harford County precedes the exit. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
After US 1 crosses over Rock Spring Road, on a bridge which was paved over with asphalt in 2021 after decades of being concrete-surfaced, MD 24 departs the bypass. This gantry directs drivers staying on US 1 north to keep left. Meanwhile, MD 24 from here goes north through the Forest Hill area and to Rocks State Park. This sign may be referencing the actual hamlet of Rocks on the north side of the park and Deer Creek. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Just past the MD 24 ramp gore. The northbound ramp to Rock Spring Road is situated just ahead. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
As it passes under a northbound-facing gantry, US 1 is now two lanes, but not for long. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The onramp from Rock Spring Road to US 1 north now prepares to merge in. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
An intersection with Water Tower Way, which leads north to Maryland Route 23, is a quarter of a mile away. Water Tower Way used to be part of MD 23 itself. That will be explained in greater detail below. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
A MD 23 shield precedes the intersection. When the Bel Air Bypass was first built in the mid-1960s, MD 23, itself on a new alignment, East-West Highway, curved slightly to the south, then east on Granary Road to Conowingo Road, and what is now Water Tower Way was a ramp to US 1. The Hickory Bypass project in 2000 realigned and extended MD 23 eastward to the new bypass. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1's carriageways split and narrow as a left-turn lane for Water Tower Way appears in the median. A ramp from southbound Water Tower Way to southbound US 1 sits behind this photo It was around this point where, prior to 2000, the Bel Air Bypass curved rightward and ended at a traffic signal at Conowingo Road. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
Now changing names to the Hickory Bypass, mainline US 1 prepares to intersect US 1 Business. Before the extension of the bypass, mainline US 1 turned from just south of this point onto Conowingo Road and passed directly through Hickory, and US 1 Business reached its northern terminus at that point. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 goes straight ahead to Rising Sun, turning left takes you toward Hickory, and turning right back toward downtown Bel Air. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
A green-on-white marker directs drivers to northbound US 1 Business. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 continues northeastward, now with concrete median; the speed limit is still 50. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
The highway now approaches a junction with Maryland Route 23, which heads west toward Jarrettsville. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
MD 23, known here as East-West Highway, has its eastern terminus here. Just under seven miles long, East-West Highway was built around the same time as the Bel Air Bypass, replacing old MD 23, Jarrettsville Road, to the north. Its current alignment in turn came about with the construction of the Hickory Bypass. Photo taken 01-14-2022.
US 1 then proceeds downhill through woods; the median is once again grassy with a guardrail. Photo taken 01-14-2022.