Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
1920. "Dead Man's Curve. Baltimore tour." View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. Note the tiny DANGER sign in the middle.
This is part of the old Baltimore-Washington Road. This part of the road was relocated again to the west of the original alignments. You can enter this part of the old road from the east side of current Route 1 across from Ducketts Lane. The entrance is also about a mile north of State Route 100.
There was an article about it in the May 30, 1955 issue of Life.
Dead Man's Curve from the north and south:
It's definitely Route 1 and seems to have been so well known back in the day that nobody bothered to say exactly where it was. I've been trying to localize it for over a year now. Current working hypothesis: it was on the upgrade approaching Elkridge from the south.
Because of the billboards, this road is likely the old Route 1, the Washington-Baltimore highway. I lived on that highway in Beltsville in the 1940s and travelled it many times with my grandfather. I imagine that it would have looked like this in the days of this photo.
Underneath that "Danger" sign, it should say "If you can read this, it's probably too late."
Did "Baltimore tour" have any special meaning, or is it just a tour around (?) Baltimore, or a ring-road perhaps?
[From what I can tell, it was National Photo's annual trip from Washington to cover the races at Pimlico. - Dave]
At least after your car rolls off the road you know just where to get new tires and auto supplies.
Does anybody know where this is located in Baltimore? I'd love to get even a rough idea of where this is. I'd happily go back and take a modern-era photo of this.
Dave in Baltimore
www.seinberg.net
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5