Maryland Route 404 (MD 404) is a major highway on Maryland's Eastern Shore in the United States. Signed east-west, it runs from MD 662 in Wye Mills on the border of Queen Anne's and Talbot counties, southeast to the Delaware state line in Caroline County, where the road continues as Delaware Route 404 (DE 404) to the Five Points intersection near Rehoboth Beach. The Maryland and Delaware state highways together cross the width of the Delmarva Peninsula and serve to connect the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area by way of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and U.S. Route 50 (US 50) with the Delaware Beaches. Along the way, MD 404 passes through mostly farmland and woodland as well as the towns of Queen Anne, Hillsboro, and Denton. The route is a four-lane divided highway between US 50 and east of Denton, with the remainder of the route a two-lane undivided road.
MD 404 was designated by 1933 to run from Matapeake (where the Annapolis–Matapeake ferry across the Chesapeake Bay connected the route to Annapolis), east along present-day MD 8, US 50, and MD 662 to Wye Mills, where it followed its current routing to the Delaware border. By 1946, the route's western terminus was moved to MD 2 north of Annapolis, where it headed east across the Chesapeake Bay on the Sandy Point-Matapeake ferry. The western terminus was cut back to Wye Mills in 1949, having been replaced by US 50 west of there. The route was realigned to bypass Queen Anne and Hillsboro in 1960 and Denton in 1987.
Since MD 404 is the main route for travelers between the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Delaware Beaches, the road experienced a high accident rate. To improve on this situation, the Maryland State Highway Administration planned to widen the two-lane portions of the route into a four-lane divided highway. A portion of the road east of Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County received $7.7 million for widening as a part of the stimulus bill signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009; this section was widened in 2012. Widening on the remainder of MD 404 between US 50 and Denton was completed in November 2017.
Route description
left|thumb|MD 404 eastbound past its western terminus at MD 662 in Wye Mills
MD 404 begins at an intersection with MD 662 (Old Wye Mills Road) in Wye Mills on the border between Queen Anne's County to the north and Talbot County to the south, heading to the east on Queen Anne's Highway, a two-lane undivided road. From here, MD 404 continues east through farmland with some residences and wooded areas as a four-lane divided highway, approaching the town of Queen Anne. MD 404 is a part of the main National Highway System for its entire length except for the portion from MD 662 to US 50 in Wye Mills.
History
thumb|right|MD 404 westbound past the Delaware state line in Caroline County
By 1921, what would become MD 404 was built as a state highway within Queen Anne, from Hillsboro to a point between Hillsboro and Denton, and between West Denton and Denton. The state highway between Queen Anne and Denton was completed by 1927. By 1933, MD 404 was designated onto a state highway between Matapeake, where the Annapolis–Matapeake ferry across the Chesapeake Bay connected the route to Annapolis in Anne Arundel County, and the Delaware border southeast of Denton. The route headed east across Kent Island to Queenstown, where it turned southeast to Wye Mills and continued east through Queen Anne, Hillsboro, and Denton. By 1946, the route's western terminus was moved to MD 2 north of Annapolis in Anne Arundel County, crossing the Chesapeake Bay on the Sandy Point–Matapeake ferry, roughly where the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is now, and continuing west through Skidmore to MD 2. This extension of MD 404 replaced the portion of MD 179 leading to Skidmore. MD 404 was rerouted to bypass Wye Mills in 1948, with part of the former alignment through the community becoming part of MD 662.
A year later, the western terminus of MD 404 was moved to MD 662 in Wye Mills. West of Wye Mills, the route was replaced by an extended US 50. The former alignment of MD 404 west of Wye Mills is now the US 50 approaches to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, with the part between Matapeake and Stevensville now a part of MD 8. In 1950, MD 404 was rerouted to bypass Queen Anne and Hillsboro to the north, with the former alignment now Old Queen Anne Road and MD 404 Alt. A portion of the route between Hillsboro and Denton was bypassed in 1960. This former alignment of MD 404 is now known as Saathoff Road and has the unsigned MD 485 designation. In 1972, MD 404 and MD 313 were relocated to a one-way pair, eastbound Franklin Street and westbound Gay Street, through Denton. The routes previously headed south out of Denton on Sixth Street and Fifth Avenue. The former alignment along Sixth Street became MD 619 by 1978. In the early 1980s, construction began to widen MD 404 to a divided highway. By 1985, construction was underway for the four-lane divided bypass of Denton between MD 404 west of Denton and MD 313 north of Denton. In 1987, MD 313 and MD 404 were rerouted to bypass Denton along the newly completed four-lane divided bypass. The former alignment of MD 404 through Denton became MD 404 Bus.
left|thumb|MD 404 westbound concurrent with MD 313 northbound on the bypass of Denton
The Maryland State Highway Administration worked on improvements to MD 404 in order to provide relief to travelers driving to the ocean resorts, notably by widening the remainder of the route into a four-lane divided highway. The primary motive behind the widening was the high accident rate that plagued the two-lane road, brought on by beach traffic. The divided highway portion of MD 404 in the Denton area was extended further in the 2000s from the south end of Denton to the Sennett Road intersection east of where MD 16 joins the route. The section between south of Legion Road and Double Hills Road was widened in 2005 while the section between Double Hills Road and Sennett Road was widened in 2007. This project received $3 million from the federal government in 2001. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009, $7.7 million went to widening a portion of MD 404 east of Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County, creating 221 jobs. The widening of this section was completed in 2012. On May 21, 2014, groundbreaking took place to widen MD 404 between west of MD 309 and Cemetery Road. The project to widen this section cost a total of $39 million. On June 25, 2015, Governor Larry Hogan announced that state funding would be allocated to finish widening MD 404 between US 50 and Denton, among other projects across the state. A total of $160 million in funds would go to widening MD 404. Widening of the section between west of MD 309 and Cemetery Road was completed in mid-2017. Work on widening of the remaining sections of MD 404 between US 50 and Denton was completed on November 20, 2017, with Governor Hogan in attendance for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
On May 29, 2011, the Route 404 Memorial Garden, located near Denton, was dedicated, honoring those who were killed in car accidents along MD 404. The memorial consists of a flagpole surrounded by a circular path with bricks bearing the names of people who died along the route.