Current and historic US Highway endpoints
in Ocean City, MD

Research credits: Adam Froehlig. More research, plus photos: Corey Dukes. More photo credits: Edward Loeb; Christoper Mason; Jeff Schroeder

US 213 was among the original 1926 routes, and its south terminus was in Ocean City. US 213 followed what is now MD hwy. 707 (or Old Bridge Road) through West Ocean City, spanning the narrowest crossing of the Sinepuxent Bay to Fenwick Island (the barrier island upon which Ocean City is built). That bridge came into town aligned with Worcester Street, so US 213 originally ended on Worcester at Philadelphia Avenue, or MD hwy. 528:

Dukes

That's looking east on Worcester - US 213 ended just ahead, at Philadelphia Av. The bend in the road is where the original bridge approach (behind the camera) curves to align with the orientation of the city street grid. In fact, if you follow the alignment of the bridge approach straight across the bay, it lines up perfectly with Old Bridge Rd in West Ocean City.

In 1944 that bridge was replaced by the current Harry W. Kelly Memorial Bridge. The western approach is now known as "Ocean Gateway", but the bridge actually comes into Ocean City aligned with Caroline Street (which is about five blocks north of Worcester). So then the south end of US 213 was where the bridge landing meets Philadelphia Av. But that was the case for only about four years: in 1948, the US 50 designation was extended east from Annapolis across Chesapeake Bay (although the Bay Bridge wasn't opened to traffic until 1952, so during the first four years of this extension, US 50 used the Skidmore-Matapeake ferry). At Wye Mills it took over what had been US 213 and replaced that designation from there to Ocean City. So what had been the south end of US 213 for four years became the east end of US 50, and that remains the case to this day... well, not so fast: Adam has discovered that Maryland route logs indicate US 50 actually ends at MD 378 (or Baltimore Avenue, which is one block east of Philadelphia). That's because at some point Philadelphia was changed to one-way southbound, and Baltimore became its northbound counterpart (MD 378 is not signed as such in the field; rather it's signed as MD 528, just like Philadelphia). The photo below was taken from Baltimore, looking west on Division Street:

Schroeder, Aug. 2007

Baltimore serves as northbound MD 528, so these cars are at the east end of US 50. The next block ahead is Philadelphia (southbound MD 528). And beyond that, barely visible in the distance, is the bridge over the Sinepuxent Bay. The shot below was taken from the foot of that bridge:

Loeb

Note the first westbound sign at far right, as well as the famous "Sacramento: 3073 miles" sign at upper left. Photos of its counterpart in California appear on the US 50 page. The photo below is looking south on Philadelphia:

Mason

That's the approach signage for the east beginning of US 50, and the former south beginning of US 213. (For reference, the watertower in the distance is the same one pictured in the first photo on this page.) Below is the assembly ahead from there, at the actual intersection:

Mason