Maryland Route 459 (MD 459) is a
state highway 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 sove ...
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 for much of its length as Tuxedo Road, the state highway runs from
U.S. Route 50 (US 50) in
Cheverly north to
MD 201 in
Tuxedo
Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...
. MD 459 serves an industrial area in Cheverly and Tuxedo and connects the town to the
Cheverly station of the
Washington Metro. The state highway was constructed in the early 1930s. MD 459 originally followed Cheverly Avenue through the middle of Cheverly, but the state highway was rolled back to the US 50 interchange in the early 1970s.
Route description
MD 459 begins at the intersection of Columbia Park Road and an exit ramp from eastbound US 50 (John Hansen Highway). Columbia Park Road continues south as a county-maintained highway, crossing
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
's
Northeast Corridor railroad line,
MARC Marc or MARC may refer to:
People
* Marc (given name), people with the first name
* Marc (surname), people with the family name
Acronyms
* MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging,
* MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system o ...
's
Penn Line
The Penn Line is a MARC commuter rail service running from Union Station in Washington, D.C., to Perryville, Maryland, along the far southern leg of the Northeast Corridor. However, the great majority of trains terminate at Baltimore's Penn ...
, and the
Orange Line of the Washington Metro and passing the entrance to the Cheverly Metro Station before turning east through an industrial area. Just south of MD 459's southern terminus, there is a ramp from westbound Columbia Park Road to eastbound US 50. From its origin, MD 459 (Columbia Park Road) crosses US 50 then intersects both an entrance ramp to westbound US 50 and Cheverly Avenue, which passes through the heart of Cheverly. MD 459 turns west and passes through an industrial area as two-lane undivided Tuxedo Road. The old alignment of MD 459,
MD 973 (Tuxedo Road), continues straight as the state highway parallels US 50 under the
Alexandria Extension of
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
Capital Subdivision
The Capital Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The line runs from near Baltimore, Maryland, southwest to Washington, D.C., along the former Baltimor ...
railroad line. Tuxedo Road ends at an intersection with Kenilworth Avenue, which is the old alignment of MD 201, and ramps to and from US 50 west. MD 459 turns north onto Kenilworth Avenue, a divided highway with two lanes northbound. The state highway passes exit ramps from both directions of MD 201 before the southbound direction ends at Frolich Lane. MD 459 continues north as a single lane a short distance until that lane merges with northbound MD 201 (Kenilworth Avenue).
MD 459 is a part of the
National Highway System as an
intermodal connector for north from its southern terminus.
History
The first part of modern MD 459 was the Kenilworth Avenue segment, which was built as a concrete road as part of MD 201, then named River Road, in 1929.
MD 459 proper was built in two sections starting in 1930. Tuxedo Road from MD 201 east to Columbia Park Road was constructed as a macadam road, and Cheverly Avenue from Columbia Park Road north through Cheverly to MD 202 was built as a concrete road; both roads were completed by 1933.
Kenilworth Avenue was expanded to a divided highway between 1953 and 1956.
When the relocation of MD 201 as a divided highway south of MD 459 was completed in 1957, MD 459 was extended to its present terminus.
Construction of the
B&O Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
's Alexandria Branch overpass of MD 459 and US 50 began in 1958 and was completed in 1959.
MD 459 was relocated at the railroad crossing; part of the old alignment became MD 973.
US 50 east of MD 201 was completed in 1962.
The freeway's partial interchange with Columbia Park Road was open by 1965.
MD 459 was removed from Cheverly Avenue and redirected to its present southern terminus in 1972.
Major intersections
See also
*
References
External links
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MDRoads: MD 459
459
Maryland Route 459