Maryland Route 189 (MD 189) is a
state highway
A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...
in the U.S. state of
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. Known as Falls Road, the highway runs from
MD 190 in
Potomac to Great Falls Road and Maryland Avenue in
Rockville. MD 189 connects Rockville with Potomac and the
Great Falls of the Potomac River
Great Falls is a series of rapids and waterfalls on the Potomac River, upstream from Washington, D.C., on the border of Montgomery County, Maryland and Fairfax County, Virginia. Great Falls Park, managed as part of George Washington Memorial ...
in southwestern
Montgomery County. The highway was constructed from Rockville to Potomac by the early 1920s and extended toward Great Falls in the early 1930s. MD 189 was expanded to a
divided highway
A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...
around its newly-constructed interchange with
Interstate 270 (I-270) in the late 1980s. The highway was truncated at both ends in the late 1990s.
Route description
MD 189 begins at an intersection with MD 190 (River Road) in the village center of Potomac. Falls Road continues south as a county highway to
MacArthur Boulevard MacArthur Boulevard may refer to:
*MacArthur Boulevard (Washington, D.C.), a road that parallels the C&O Canal in Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland
*MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland, California, a major boulevard in Oakland and a histo ...
and the entrance to the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains of ...
, which includes the Great Falls of the Potomac. MD 189 heads north as a two-lane undivided road that passes through several sharp curves between the
Bullis School
Bullis School is an independent, co-educational college preparatory day school for grades K-12. The school is located in Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
History
Bullis was founded in Washington D.C. in 1930 by Commander Willia ...
to the southeast and the Falls Road Golf Course to the northwest. The highway meets the western end of
Montrose Road
Randolph Road is a county highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway is the major component of a mostly four- to six-lane highway spanning southern Montgomery County and northwestern Prince George's County that also includes Montrose Roa ...
shortly before entering the city of Rockville. MD 189 expands to a four-lane divided highway ahead of its intersection with Wootton Parkway. The highway continues through a
single-point urban interchange
A single-point urban interchange (SPUI, or ), also called a single-point interchange (SPI) or single-point diamond interchange (SPDI), is a type of highway interchange. The design was created in order to help move large volumes of traffic thro ...
with I-270 (Eisenhower Memorial Highway) shortly before reaching its northern terminus at a four-way intersection with Great Falls Road, Maryland Avenue, and Potomac Valley Road. Great Falls Road (formerly a direct continuation of Falls Road, now a left turn at the intersection) heads north toward the west end of downtown Rockville and Maryland Avenue heads northeast directly toward downtown.
History
MD 189 was paved as an
macadam
Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the o ...
road from Montgomery Avenue (now
MD 28) in Rockville to Potomac by 1921.
The highway was extended as a concrete road from Potomac to what is now MacArthur Boulevard near Great Falls in 1930.
MD 189 did not originally have an interchange with Washington National Pike (now I-270).
The highway's single-point urban interchange with I-270 was built in 1988.
As part of that project, MD 189 was expanded to a four-lane divided highway from south of Wootton Parkway to Maryland Avenue.
The latter intersection was placed in its present form at that time, replacing the seamless transition from Falls Road to Great Falls Road just north of I-270.
MD 189 was rolled back from Great Falls to its present southern terminus in Potomac in 1999.
The highway was removed from Great Falls Road in Rockville in 2000.
Major intersections
See also
*
References
External links
{{commonscat
MDRoads: MD 189
Maryland Route 189
Maryland Route 189 (MD 189) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Falls Road, the highway runs from MD 190 in Potomac to Great Falls Road and Maryland Avenue in Rockville. MD 189 connects Rockville with Potomac and the G ...
189