The above shield, in downtown Wilmington, can be seen further down this page in the background of another photo. It uses an old font that dates it to at least 30 years old. All photos on this page are eastbound, starting in Newark. For some Newark photos from the former Business DE 2, see the DE 273 link at the bottom of the page.


Also at least 30 years old.


Backing away from Wilmington (the Arby's is pretty close), you don't usually see BEGIN assemblies, but DE 279 is a special case. In 2013, DelDOT decided that it didn't like the DE 2 concurrencies with DE 896 (which was its own fault) and DE 273, so it truncated DE 2 to the east side at DE 72/273. Still concurrent with DE 72, mind you, so let's all discount their rationale for this. The unmultiplexed DE 2 west of DE 896 needed a number, so Delaware stole from Maryland's side and now calls it 279. The BEGIN may disappear someday, but these assemblies show how the change was signed shortly after inception. There had been "EAST 2" under "EAST 896" once.


In Newark, the old signs are peeling and the new sign is, well, stinking. The 273 shield is further evidence that NJ and DE are swapping shield designs, while the 2 shield is wrong, just wrong. Never use Series E inside a shield. Also, never use lowercase for directional or other tags (I'm talking above the shields). And, yeah, "Main Street" should be larger, to match the other signs.


This sign isn't unusual, except, um, you're on DE 2 as you pass this. It's on Anna Way, and the idea is that traffic turns from either direction of 2, uses a little jughandle at Gilliberti/Gilibert/Gilberti/etc. Lane (how many people can claim to live off a jughandle?), and comes back up Anna Way to the traffic signal. Sorry, I've seen three different spellings for that little cul-de-sac. It's a novel approach, but the signing needs a little help (like "U TURN NEXT [LEFT][RIGHT]" and, instead of "TO (2) ↑", "U TURN ↑"... and to sign DE 72 here as well).


Delaware for some reason prefers MUST EXIT to EXIT ONLY. More descriptive, perhaps? The 141 shield should be oval to fit all three digits, but with two 1's it's not a terrible calamity.


Entering and then into Wilmington, with the peeling sign at Lancaster Ave. (DE 48).


And you thought the shield on top was old; this one is at least 40 years old. There was also a DEL 9 somewhere in Wilmington, but I didn't pass it in my travels, so this may now be the last one. Click for closeup, where we learn two things: the WEST sign is a recycled HIDDEN ENTRANCE sign (that was yellow), and the route shield itself is sign M1-4 (US shields were M1-1, from the now-defunct website Mark O'Neil's Road Signs of Delaware). Oh, you want location? Whenever I give locations, signs are removed. Suffice it to say that the clue is somewhere else on this site.


The old 2 shield in the back of the first photo is super-sized at top. DE 2 ends at DE 52.

Old Capitol Trail, former DE 2

Onto DE 896
Onto DE 4
Onto DE 273
Onto DE 72
Onto DE 141
To I-95
Onto DE 9
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