U.S. Highway 1

There are 529 miles of highway in Maine, the second longest stretch and only 4 miles shorter than the mileage in Florida. Traveling south in Maine some of the cities and towns you will see are: Fort Kent, Madawaska, Grand Isle, Caribou, Ellsworth, Bucksport, Belfast, Camden, Rockport, Rockland, Waldoboro, Newcastle, Wiscasset, Bath, Brunswick, Freeport, Yarmouth, Portland, Saco, Biddeford, Kennebunk, Ogunquit and Kittery. US 1 ends at W Main St at the foot of the Clair Fort Kent Bridge. The road becomes ME-161 for the next 30 mi (48 km) to Allagash, Maine. The Clair Fort Kent Bridge takes traffic over the St John River into Clair, New Brunswick from the end of US Hwy 1 in Fort Kent.

The coast line of New Hampshire is fairly short and therefore U.S. Highway 1 is short also. You will visit the Seacoast region and the cities of Portsmouth, Hampton and Seabrook.

Traveling from Salisbury at the New Hampshire border southward one passes through the North Shore towns of Newburyport, Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Topsfield, Danvers, Peabody, and Saugus. The portion from Topsfield northward is predominantly a local road, while the portion from Danvers south is a commuter highway into Boston with a large amount of commercial activity.

Here the route enters Boston, passing through Malden, Revere, Chelsea, Charlestown, downtown Boston, the South End, Dorchester, and Quincy. An alternate route (which carries Route 1 signage but actually is not part of the route) goes through Boston’s Longwood, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, Chestnut Hill and West Roxbury neighborhoods along with the suburb of Dedham, before meeting up with the regular route in Westwood. This alternate route is a more scenic drive along Boston’s famed Emerald Necklace, before becoming a divided commercial highway in West Roxbury, while the official route is a freeway that is concurrent with Interstate 93 and (at its southern end) Route 128.

Continuing south you'll follow what was known as "the Old Boston Post Road" and pass through Westwood, Norwood, Sharon, Walpole, Foxborough, Wrentham, Plainville, North Attleborough, and Attleboro to the Rhode Island border.

From Pawtucket at the northern border of the state, Route 1 travels through Providence, Cranston, Warwick, East Greenwich, North Kingstown, South Kingstown, Narragansett, Wakefield, Charlestown and Westerly.

Crossing into the state over the Pawcatuck River, Route 1 travels west along the coastline and heads through several historic cities such as New London, New Haven, Bridgeport, Fairfield, and Stamford and passes many charming village greens in between.

Route 1 enters New York at Port Chester and passes through Rye, Mamaroneck, Larchmont, New Rochelle and Pelham in Westchester County where it is known as the Boston Post Road. From there the road passes through the Bronx and a short stretch of Upper Manhattan before leaving on the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey. It is a very busy road with lots of trucks and pollution in much of this area, but it is also one of the main commercial streets for some stretches, such as in New Rochelle, where as Main Street it goes right through the historic and still vibrant Downtown and is lined by shops and restaurants.

From Fort Lee at the eastern border of the state, Route 1 travels through Palisades Park, Ridgefield, Fairview, North Bergen, Jersey City, Kearny, Newark, Elizabeth, Linden, Rahway, Woodbridge Township, Edison Township, New Brunswick, North Brunswick Township, South Brunswick Township, Plainsboro Township, West Windsor Township, Lawrence Township, and finally Trenton, before crossing the Delaware River and entering Pennsylvania. Portions of the route are also concurrent with Route 9. Route 1 is a superhighway in much of Jersey City, Kearny, Newark and Elizabeth and uses the Pulaski Skyway for 3 1/2 miles of that stretch, but much of the stretch south of New Brunswick, which goes past car-centered shopping centers, rather than through downtowns, remains a legacy highway with occasional traffic lights.

Upon entering Pennsylvania, Route 1 travels farther southwest through North Philadelphia. After leaving the Philly area, Route 1 turns south and enters Maryland.

Route 1 crosses the Mason-Dixon Line just northeast of Rising Sun and then heads roughly south west through Conowingo, Bel Air, Kingsville, Baltimore, Elkridge, Laurel, College Park, Hyattsville before entering the District of Columbia.

The highway enters the District of Columbia along Rhode Island Avenue and turns left onto 6th Street. A right on Constitution Avenue brings the traveller along the edge of the National Mall. Route 1 turns left onto 14th Street in front of the Washington Monument, although it is illegal for drivers to turn left at this intersection (instead, one must turn left onto 15th Street, left again at the second traffic light onto Jefferson Place, then right onto 14th Street). From there Route 1 passes the Jefferson Memorial and crosses the Potomac River into Virginia.

Immediately upon entering Virginia, Route 1 heads through Arlington and Alexandria, then south to historic Fredericksburg and then to Downtown Richmond. South of Richmond, Route 1 traverses Petersburg before crossing into North Carolina.

Just south of Alexandria, Route 1 passes very close to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington.

In North Carolina, US 1 runs along I-85 through Henderson. It then proceeds toward Raleigh becoming Capital Blvd. It then latches on to the I-440 Beltline around the western side of Raleigh and continues as a freeway south of Raleigh through Cary. It is a freeway south of Cary though Sanford and to Southern Pines. The section from Southern Pines to Rockingham has been widened to four lanes. It continues south along the geological fall line to South Carolina.

Two lanes for much of its length in South Carolina, US 1 here is farther from the interstates and remains an important route in its own right. Tracing the ancient coastline of the Cretaceous period, Hwy 1 connects many of the state's oldest inland settlements and is the primary means of access from the sparsely populated sandhills region to both Columbia and the NC capital of Raleigh. Route 1 enters the state north of Wallace and passes through Cheraw and Camden, there widening to four lanes and running approximately parallel to I-20 into Columbia. As Gervais St., Highway 1 is a primary street in Columbia's central business district and passes directly in front of the statehouse. Leaving the capital, US 1 continues west roughly along the route of I-20 through Batesburg-Leesville and Aiken, entering Georgia at Augusta.

From South Carolina, US 1 goes from Augusta south through Wadley, Swainsboro, Oak Park, And Lyons. It continues through Santa Claus And Baxley before continuing through Waycross and Homeland.

If you travel south through Florida on U.S. Highway 1, some of the towns or cities you will pass by include: Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Palm Coast, Ormond Beach, Holly Hill, Daytona Beach, Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater, Titusville, Cocoa, Rockledge, Melbourne, Palm Bay, Grant, Sebastian, Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie, Stuart, Hobe Sound, Jupiter, North Palm Beach, Riviera Beach, West Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Dania, Hollywood, Hallandale, North Miami Beach, North Miami, Miami, Coral Gables, South Miami, Kendall, Perrine, Homestead, Key Largo and the rest of the Florida Keys to Key West, where it ends at an intersection of Whitehead & Fleming St in front of the Judge Jefferson Browne Courtroom Complex in old town Key West. The highway is 533 miles long through the state of Florida.