U.S. Route 1 in Massachusetts

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U.S. Route 1

Length:

85.61 mi^[1] (137.78 km)

Formed:

1926

South end:

US 1 in Pawtucket, RI

North end:

US 1 in Seabrook, NH

Massachusetts State Highway Routes
< I-495		Route 1A >

In the U.S. state of Massachusetts, U.S. Route 1 is a major north-south state highway through Boston.

[edit] Route description

US 1 enters the state from Rhode Island at Attleboro. It closely parallels Interstate 95 as it goes through the towns of North Attleboro, Plainville, Wrentham, Foxborough, Walpole, Sharon, Norwood (where a segment is known as the Norwood Automile due to the many car dealerships that line the road), and Westwood. US 1 then has a wrong-way concurrency with Interstate 95 up to the junction with Interstate 93 then travels along Interstate 93 from Canton through downtown Boston separating from the Interstate just after passing through the Central Artery tunnel. The route crosses the Tobin Bridge traveling over Chelsea and Revere as a freeway known as Boston's Northeast Expressway, then as a traditional six lane expressway (surface road without at-grade intersections or traffic lights) through Malden, Melrose, Saugus and Lynnfield. From Lynnfield, US 1 again closely parallels Interstate 95 going through the towns of Peabody, Danvers, Topsfield, Ipswich, Rowley, Newbury, Newburyport, and Salisbury, before it enters the state of New Hampshire.

Route 1A runs alongside Route 1 in four parts of the state.

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[edit] History

Most of US 1 consists of two former turnpike roads - the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike and the Newburyport Turnpike. The older roads that these turnpikes were meant to bypass are now mostly Route 1A.

US 1 replaced the cancelled I-95 on the Northeast Expressway, north of downtown Boston, in the 1970s. In the late 1980s, US 1 was moved onto I-93 south of and through Boston, leaving the old route - VFW Parkway, Jamaicaway, Riverway, and Storrow Drive - without a number.