 Maryland Route 17 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Maryland Route 17 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by MDSHA | ||||
| Length | 29.49 mi[1] (47.46 km) | |||
| Existed | 1927–present | |||
| Tourist routes |  Journey Through Hallowed Ground Byway Antietam Campaign Scenic Byway | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| South end |  SR 287 at Potomac River in Brunswick | |||
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| North end | Frederick–Washington county line near Wolfsville | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Maryland | |||
| Counties | Frederick | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Maryland Route 17 (MD 17) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway begins at the Virginia state line at the Potomac River in Brunswick, where the highway continues south as Virginia State Route 287 (SR 287). MD 17 runs 29.49 miles (47.46 km) north from the Brunswick Bridge to the Frederick–Washington county line near Wolfsville. The state highway serves as the main north–south highway of the Middletown Valley of western Frederick County. MD 17 connects Brunswick and Wolfsville with Rosemont, Burkittsville, Middletown, and Myersville. The state highway also connects those communities with the valley's main east–west highways, which include U.S. Route 340 (US 340), US 40 Alternate, Interstate 70 (I-70), and US 40.
What is now MD 17 was originally designated MD 33. The first sections of the state highway were constructed in Brunswick and Rosemont in 1916. MD 33 was mostly constructed south of Myersville in the early 1920s; the last pieces of the Brunswick–Myersville highway were filled in by 1927. MD 33 was completed from Myersville to Wolfsville in the early 1930s. MD 33 swapped numbers with the original MD 17, a highway on the Eastern Shore, in 1940. The portion of MD 17 north of Wolfsville was brought into the state highway system in 1956, the same year the Myersville–Middletown Road was transferred to county control. The state highway north of Myersville was designated MD 153. In the mid 1980s, MD 17 was extended north from Middletown, assuming all of MD 153 to its present northern terminus. The modern Brunswick Bridge was constructed in the early 1950s, replacing a bridge constructed in the early 1890s at the same site.