Maryland Route 214 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Avenue | ||||
 Maryland Route 214 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by MDSHA | ||||
| Length | 24.97 mi[1] (40.19 km) | |||
| Existed | 1927–present | |||
| Tourist routes |  Roots and Tides Scenic Byway | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end | East Capitol Street at the District of Columbia boundary in Capitol Heights | |||
| East end | Road end in Beverley Beach | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Maryland | |||
| Counties | Prince George's, Anne Arundel | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Maryland Route 214 (MD 214) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Central Avenue, the highway runs 24.97 miles (40.19 km) from Southern Avenue and East Capitol Street at the District of Columbia boundary in Capitol Heights east to Beverley Beach. MD 214 connects the central Prince George's County suburbs of Capitol Heights, Seat Pleasant, Largo, and Bowie with the southern Anne Arundel County communities of Davidsonville and Edgewater and several beach villages along the Chesapeake Bay. The highway connects Interstate 95 (I-95)/I-495 (Capital Beltway) to FedExField, Six Flags America, and several stations of the Washington Metro's Blue and Silver lines, which the route parallels between Capitol Heights and Largo.
MD 214 was constructed as part of three state highways. MD 214 proper was constructed in the mid-1910s from Washington to Largo and extended east to what is now U.S. Route 301 (US 301) through the 1920s. MD 254 was built from MD 2 in Edgewater west to Davidsonville in the early to mid-1920s. MD 253 was constructed from the modern end of the highway southeast to Beverley Beach between the mid-1920s and early 1930s. The gap between Bowie and Davidsonville was filled in the mid-1930s; MD 214 was extended east across a new Patuxent River bridge and took over MD 254's route to Edgewater. In the late 1940s, MD 214 was relocated through Edgewater and extended along most of MD 253 to Beverley Beach. The state highway was widened in Prince George's County in the 1930s and again in the 1950s, and from US 301 to MD 2 in the 1940s and again in the 1950s. MD 214 was expanded to a divided highway at US 301 in the late 1950s, at its interchange with the Capital Beltway in the mid-1960s, and when it bypassed Capitol Heights in the late 1960s. The two-lane gaps between those three segments were filled in the 1980s and 1990s.