Monday, March 3, 2008

Baltimore Pike

Alicia jokingly mentioned the idea of taking the Baltimore Pike all the way to, well, Baltimore. What a crazy idea! Actually, with all of the traffic lights, it would probably be miserable.

According to Wikipedia, "Baltimore Pike"--a mixture of old turnpike routes and not-old-turnpike routes--was replaced as the primary route between Philadelphia and Baltimore by US-1 when the latter road was completed in 1926. Much of the old pike was incorporated into the new road, some has continued to be used under other signage, and presumably the rest has fallen into disuse.

Looking at Google Maps, it appears that US-1 is not actually signed as Baltimore Pike all that often since it's usually too busy putting on airs as an expressway and is given some sort of "Bypass" name. East of Media, US-1 first leaves to become the Media bypass (which you cross if you take PA-320 across the pike and north for about another mile) and then travels along Philly's western city line. You can pick up the road to Baltimore (it's signed Baltimore Ave at this point) at the UPenn hospital, where it's signed as US-13, and take it west to Media through what must be about eight million red lights.

While Swat people know their main street as "Baltimore Pike", the "Ave" makes brief returns in Lansdowne, Clifton and Media but it's back to Pike by the time US-1 intercepts the route and takes over. US-1 is the pike through such localities as Wawa, Chadds Ford, and Pennsbury and even cruises past Longwood Gardens. Then, we hit the bustling metropolis of Kennett Square, which needs an expressway bypass, so the Pike continues as an unnumbered road through town. It looks like the BP signing is temporarily removed but it's hard to say for sure.

US-1 continues on its merry express way towards Oxford, and PA-41 picks up Baltimore Pike signage heading Northwest around Avondale (no, the Avondale Road that leaves Yale Ave. doesn't go all the way there.) The state road status doesn't last long, but the Pike continues west, paralleling the Route 1 expressway, all the way to Nottingham, where it appears to end not far from the state line.

Well, that won't do. We know that the old Baltimore Pike crossed the Susquehanna on the old Conowingo Bridge, which was located at the town of the same name and was rebuilt as a dam after burning down early last century. Actually, the entire town of Conowingo was relocated when the dam was built, but I doubt that made much of a difference in road routing. Past Nottingham, Route 1 is signed as "Conowingo Road", not "Baltimore Pike", but since it is the only road going fairly directly to Conowingo, apparently either it follows the old Pike route or that route is no longer open.

US-1 is once again signed as Baltimore Pike for a brief stretch around Bel Air, MD; this doesn't last long but at least makes "staying on route 1" a reasonable choice for trying to follow the old route. From there, it's signed as "Belair Road" and is nearly arrow-straight southwest in Baltimore. It actually makes more sense to call a road by the smaller town it's going between than by the larger, so we should probably give the powers that be a pass here.

Long story short, the default route from the start of Baltimore Ave to "Baltimore" is 100 miles, 1:56. Taking as much of Baltimore Pike as possible, and US-1 the rest of the way is 109 miles...but 3:08 (side note: Google maps REALLY did not want to accept this route. You've never heard such whining.) But if you were into pretty flowers and/or the Du Pont family...the stopoff at the 35-mile mark might be too good to pass up.

(Added later:) It turns out there's another "Old Baltimore Pike" in Delaware, from Christiana (not far from Wilmington) to the Maryland state line, where it becomes Red Mill Road. At Elkton, the first real town on the Maryland side, MD-7 splits off the main drag (which here is US-30) heading southwest and is signed as "Old Philadelphia Road". This signage lasts almost all the way to the Susquehanna. Then, MD-7 joins US-40 and the signage ends, but it begins again when MD-7 splits off at Aberdeen and continues right into Baltimore.

Wikipedia says that MD-7 is actually the old route of US-40, and that US-40 passes through an "old corridor" from Baltimore to Philly, incoporating some old turnpikes, but apparently not the same ones as "Baltimore Pike". This corridor doesn't go anywhere near Conowingo, so it seems pretty clear that the two "pikes" were distinct. This is further supported by some "Philadelphia Pike" signage on US-13 between Wilmington and the DE-PA state line. US-13 probably runs through the old pike corridor; of course, these days you can just hop on I-95.



The southern/coastal route looks a little more direct, but going through Wilmington is probably a chore. On the other hand, I-95 would be just up the street once you got tired of starting and stopping and begged for limited access. Decisions, decisions...

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