Maryland Route 257 (MD 257) 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
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
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 Rock Point Road, the state highway runs from
MD 254 near
Rock Point north to
U.S. Route 301
U.S. Route 301 (US 301) is a spur of U.S. Route 1 running through the South Atlantic States. It runs from Biddles Corner, Delaware at Delaware Route 1 to Sarasota, Florida at U.S. Route 41. It passes through the states of Delaware, Mar ...
(US 301) in
Newburg. MD 257 serves the Cobb Neck of southern
Charles County between the
Potomac River
The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...
and
Wicomico River, connecting the communities of
Cobb Island,
Issue
Issue or issues may refer to:
Publishing
* ''Issue'' (company), a mobile publishing company
* ''Issue'' (magazine), a monthly Korean comics anthology magazine
* Issue (postal service), a stamp or a series of stamps released to the public
* '' ...
,
Tompkinsville Tompkinsville may refer to:
*Tompkinsville, Kentucky
* Tompkinsville, Maryland
*Tompkinsville, Staten Island, New York
** Tompkinsville (Staten Island Railway station)
The Tompkinsville station is a Staten Island Railway station in the neighborh ...
, and
Wayside with US 301. The state highway was originally the southernmost section of
MD 3, which was constructed on the peninsula in the 1910s. The portion of MD 3 south of US 301 was rebuilt and renumbered as MD 257 in the 1950s. The southern terminus of the route was cut back from Rock Point to its current location in the 1980s.
Route description
MD 257 begins at an intersection with the northern end of MD 254 (Cobb Island Road) near Rock Point. Rock Point Road continues southeast as a county highway to the namesake promontory at the confluence of the Wicomico River and Potomac River. MD 257 heads northwest as a two-lane undivided road, passing through the hamlet of Issue, where Swan Point Road splits to the west toward the golf course-centered community of
Swan Point. The state highway next passes through Tompkinsville, where the highway passes the southern end of Mount Victoria Road, which serves the village of
Mount Victoria. MD 257 next passes through Wayside, where the highway crosses Piccowaxen Creek and intersects Morgantown Road, which leads to the Potomac River community of Morgantown. The state highway continues northwest to Newburg, where the highway meets the north end of Mount Victoria Road. MD 257 curves to the west and crosses over
CSX
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
's
Pope's Creek Subdivision
The Pope's Creek Subdivision is a CSX Transportation railroad line in Maryland, running from Bowie to Morgantown where the Morgantown Generating Station is located and the Chalk Point Generating Station.
History
The Pope's Creek Subdivision ...
railroad line, whose southern terminus is at the nearby
Morgantown Generating Station
The Morgantown Generating Station is a 1,477 MW electric generating plant owned by GenOn Holdings LLC., located in the unincorporated town of Newburg, Maryland, near Morgantown, on the Potomac River. The station was built in 1970.GenOn Ene ...
, before reaching a
directional crossover intersection with US 301 (Robert Crain Highway) a short distance north of the
Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge
The Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial/Senator Thomas "Mac" Middleton Bridge, also known as the Potomac River Bridge, is a , two-lane continuous truss bridge that spans the Potomac River between Newburg in Charles County, Maryland and Dahlgren in ...
over the Potomac River.
History
Rock Point Road was the southernmost segment of the highway from Rock Point to Waldorf that was marked for improvement by the Maryland State Roads Commission in 1909.
That highway was designated MD 3 in 1927.
The Cobb Neck portion of the state road was constructed as a gravel road between Wayside and Tompkinsville in 1913 and a concrete road from Tompkinsville to Rock Point in 1914.
The highway was completed when the state road north of Wayside was built as a gravel road by 1919.
MD 3 was widened and rebuilt with a bituminous concrete surface from Newburg to Tompkinsville in 1950 and from there to Rock Point in 1951.
MD 3 was renumbered as MD 257 in 1959.
MD 257 achieved its current length when the highway between MD 254 and Rock Point was transferred to Charles County around 1989.
Junction list
See also
*
References
External links
{{Attached KML, display=title,inline
MDRoads: MD 257
257
__NOTOC__
Year 257 ( CCLVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valerianus and Gallienus (or, less frequently, year 10 ...
Maryland Route 257
Maryland Route 257 (MD 257) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Rock Point Road, the state highway runs from Maryland Route 254, MD 254 near Rock Point, Maryland, Rock Point north to U.S. Route 301 in Maryland, U.S. Route ...