End of US highway 213

End of historic US highway 213

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Summa

At its maximum extent, our measurements show that US 213 was about 148 miles long (although the route log below stated 156 miles).

1926-1948

North: Elkton, MD
South: Ocean City, MD

1948-1971

North: Elkton, MD
South: Wye Mills, MD

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US 213 was among the inaugural routes of 1926; this is an excerpt from AASHO's April 1927 route log:

At the time, there was no bridge over the Chesapeake between Annapolis and Wye Mills...

...so US 213 was there to serve the Maryland half of the Delmarva Peninsula -- connecting Elkton, Wye Mills, Cambridge, Salisbury, and Ocean City (the location of its original south terminus). These photos were taken looking north on Augustine Herman Highway in Elkton, which is now MD 213, but was formerly US 213:

Nitzman, 2000

Karners, Dec. 2016

Already by 1942, today's US 40 (known locally as Pulaski Highway) was built around the south side of Elkton, so US 213 ended there for at least 40 years. But prior to that, the US 213 designation continued ahead to the original US 40, which is now MD hwy. 7 through downtown Elkton. Ahead the road becomes Bridge Street; where that reaches Main Street is where US 213 originally ended at Main (old US 40):

Nitzman, Apr. 2004 (sign gone as of 2016)

c. 1956, Gousha

Here is a perspective from eastbound historic US 40:

Nitzman, Apr. 2004 (sign gone as of 2016)

Originally US 213 began to the right. Here is a view facing that direction:

Nitzman, Apr. 2004 (sign gone as of 2016)

That shows the northernmost segment of old US 213. Modern US 40 is about a half-mile ahead.

In 1948 the US 50 designation was extended east from Annapolis. At Wye Mills it subsumed what had been US 213 to its current terminus in Ocean City. So US 213 was truncated, such that its south end was in Wye Mills (just as the south end of MD hwy. 213 is there today). This photo was looking south on MD 213 at the US 50 bypass:

Nitzman, Sep. 2004

The 1956 map on this page shows that bypass and clearly indicates that US 213 ended there. Looking at a modern map, one could easily make the assumption that, prior to the bypass, US 213 originally continued further ahead, along what is now MD 213, ending at today's MD 662. However, that segment of MD 213 did not actually exist until around the 1980s. By the time US 213 was truncated to Wye Mills, the bypass had already been built, so that was its endpoint until the route was decommissioned in 1971.

Research and/or photo credits: Andy Field; Karin and Martin Karner; Alex Nitzman; Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa

Page originally created 2000;
last updated Jan. 19, 2025.