Sunday, May 17, 1992...

Covered another 150 or so miles of Route 1, from northern Maryland to the Bronx River Parkway, before turning for home. I've always liked the terrain of northern Maryland -- rolling hills and attractive small farms, often difficult to see in the morning under the fog -- and today was no exception. Southern Pennsylvania was much better than I had expected; it doesn't look at all like a Philadelphia suburb until you get within five miles of the city, and with Longmont Gardens, the Brandywine Museum and the Franklin Mint Museum to choose from, there's plenty to keep one occupied.

Route 1 becomes Township Line Road a few miles outside of Philadelphia, then City Line Avenue a mile or so before the junction with US 30. Across the Schuylkill River Route 1 becomes Roosevelt Avenue, which must be the least efficient 10-lane road in the world: an inner roadway with three lanes in each direction, an outer roadway with two, frequent crossovers -- and everyone comes to a dead stop at each light.

I crossed into New Jersey at Trenton, where a sign on a neighboring bridge proclaimed, "Trenton Makes, the World Takes." Nice try, guys...the world's taken so much from Trenton there's nothing left to make. The drive from Trenton to greater New York is much shorter than I'd have thought, but just as ugly as expected -- especially when the road splits into the Pulaski Skyway and a truck route which still retains the name Lincoln Highway.