Maryland Route 21 (MD 21) 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. Known as Tolchester Beach Road, the highway runs from
MD 445 near
Tolchester Beach east to
MD 20 near
Fairlee in western
Kent County. MD 21 was constructed in the mid-1920s to provide a modern road connection to Tolchester Beach, then a major
beach resort on the
Chesapeake Bay. The highway's western terminus was rolled back to MD 445 in the early 1990s.
Route description
MD 21 begins at Tolchester Beach Road's intersection with the northern end of MD 445 (Tolchester Road), the north leg of the intersection is county-maintained Bay Shore Road, and Tolchester Beach Road continues west as a county road to the eponymous beach community and its marina on the Chesapeake Bay. MD 21 heads southeast as a two-lane undivided road, passing through woodland before running through farmland. The highway reaches its eastern terminus at MD 20 (Rock Hall Road) at McClean's Corner south of Fairlee. The road continues southeast as county-maintained Sandy Bottom Road toward
St. Paul's Church.
History
Tolchester Beach was a major resort on the Chesapeake Bay that featured a hotel, pavilion, swimming, and amusement park rides. The resort opened in 1877 and thrived with the traffic generated by steamboat excursions from various ports on the bay, including
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
. However, the rise of more modern resorts caused a long decline; Tolchester Beach closed in 1962.
Tolchester Beach Road was constructed as a concrete road in 1924 and 1925 to connect the Tolchester Beach resort to the
Rock Hall–
Chestertown road at McClean's Corner.
By 1927, a ferry connected Tolchester Beach with the
Inner Harbor of Baltimore.
This ferry service continued until between 1940 and 1946.
MD 21 was resurfaced with bituminous concrete in 1975.
The highway's westernmost , measured from the high-water mark of the Chesapeake Bay, was transferred from state to county maintenance through an August 16, 1990, road transfer agreement.
The western terminus of MD 21 was moved again, this time to MD 445's northern terminus, when the portion of MD 21 between MD 445 and Tolchester Beach was transferred from state to county maintenance through a June 1, 1993, road transfer agreement.
Junction list
See also
*
References
External links
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MDRoads: MD 21
021
021 is:
* in Brazil, the telephone area code for the city of Rio de Janeiro and surrounding cities (Greater Rio de Janeiro)
* in China, the telephone area code for the city of Shanghai.
* in Indonesia, the area code for the city of Jakarta and su ...
Maryland Route 021