Maine State Route 24
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Termini and Mileage (2006)	Termini Main alignment: Int of BAILEYS ISL RD, MACKERA, Harpswell to Int of RTE 9, RTE 24, RTE 2, Gardiner Mileage Main alignment: 45.12 miles (total over all segments)
Regional and National Route Information	History as New England Interstate (1925) A 1923 map shows the entire southern routing of ME 24 as part of NEI 24, continuing from there to Greenville Jct. This is not seen by 1924, and may have only been a proposed routing. As ME 24 includes portions of old alignments of US 1 and US 201, it also includes parts of their preceding NEIs (in this case NEI 1 and NEI 20, respectively).
Notes and History	Another central coast route, ME 24 inherits the spectacular "no outlet" routing of its ancestor ME 124, terminating almost at the very tip of Bailey's Island south of Brunswick where it has always run since the Maine Great Renumbering. As originally designated, ME 24 ran along the entirety of old ME 124 to Brunswick (crossing the Androscoggin River with US 201), then new routing from there to Gardiner via Bowdoinham and Richmond, then co-routed with ME 27 and US 201 into Augusta. In Augusta, it intersected ME 11/ME 17 (now ME 11/ME 17/US 202) at Western Avenue, throwing off US 201 across the Kennebec, and exited town as ME 11/ME 24/ME 27 (now ME 8/ME 11/ME 27). In West Sidney, ME 24 separated along new routing all the way to St Albans via Oakland, Hinckley and Hartland, then up the entirety of old ME 153 to Dexter and finally old ME 224 from there to Guilford where it terminated. This 125-mile routing was cut back in 1954 to Gardiner with the routing north of Sidney given to new route ME 23; as the portion between Gardiner and Sidney was already existing numbered highway (ME 27 and others), the ME 24 designation was simply dropped. Originally ME 24 kept ME 124's course off of which veered original ME 123, the intersection of both running almost directly through the middle of modern Naval Air Station Brunswick (the stub of Pine St south of Bath Rd may be part of this old routing, although another potentially better suspect is Garrison St) and is obliterated in the modern day. From there it briefly corouted with US 1 which was routed on Pleasant St and Bath Rd (see US 1) along Maine St and exited with US 201 and then-ME 196. With the expansion of the Brunswick NAS in 1951, ME 24 was connected on an eastern bypass to Cooks Corner and directly into US 1 without ME 123, proceeding west on US 1/Bath Rd back to Maine St as before. As a result, ME 24 today retains part of the old US 1/Bath Rd alignment in Brunswick and Bath with which it was co-routed until US 1 was moved to its modern freeway alignment; see US 1. Necessarily this also includes the stub of old US 201, which was retracted to the US 1 freeway. ME 24 is otherwise unrelated to NEI 24, which is now mostly US 1. ME 24 crosses the remarkable 1928 Cribstone Bridge in Bailey Island, formerly part of the routing of ME 124 (see ME 124).
Archival Photographs
Looking north on Maine St in Brunswick, probably taken in the early 1960s. The sign indicates "PORTLAND" and "AUGUSTA" with directional signage for US 1, US 201 and ME 24. (Undated Owen Art-Color postcard, in author's collection.) Western end of the US 1 expressway in Brunswick in 1964 at the Maine St interchange, after the construction of the section to Cooks Corner (Highway News 5/64). This was lengthened to Bath and upgraded to freeway by 1966; it may have briefly carried an I-95 designation. ME 24 and US 201 are on the overpass.
Additional Resources	Maine Highways 11 to 25 (JP Kirby) Bippin' Round Brunswick (Eric Bryant)

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