Three Notch Rd

[ptbrien]

I tried a search in your forum and couldn't find anything re garding my topic. I know that there is a road side sign, but each time I pass I am trying to get home after a trying trip to Waldorf, VA, or DC. What are the three notches of Three Notch Rd?

 

[Chasey_Lane]

The roads name comes from a Colonial era which mandated that a road to a ferry be mandated with three notches on a tree trunk along the route. MD 235 is the longest route to be entirely within one county. Read more about the county's road development here.

 

[Henry]

ptbrien,

The sign you pass states: "A law of 1704 provided that three notches of equal distance marked on the trees indicated a road leading to a ferry." The sign is in the wrong stretch of Rte. 235, as the original was from the end of Mattapany Street to Millstone Landing, which is since 1941 part of the Naval Air Station, but was for over 200 years the ferry boat landing to Solomons and to the road north to Annapolis.

Henry