Massachusetts Roads - MA 99

This ain't Joisey - make it a square!
Better.


MA 99, known as Broadway, was US 1 before construction of the Northeast Freeway. At least in the 1950s-1960s, if not originally, US 1 used MA 28 to MA 16 to bypass the southern section of Broadway. Even today, US 1 is Broadway north of the MA 99 merge.


The Charlestown Bridge, on the road that is MA 99 to the north, lit up at night and then clearer at day. It has three sections of two lanes each; the middle is two-way, the right has green arrows, the left has red X's. The middle also has a lower clearance - it probably once carried trolley cars.


Signage just north of the bridge has not changed between 2003 and 2005, even though it's clearly not permanent - note the oversized yellow fields and the black-on-orange shield.


On MA 99 SB at the exit for the Gilmore Bridge, where 99 ends. The brown sign on the left is for the USS Constitution. The City Square sign clearly has a 1 in white... but on an I-shaped shield? My friend, this used to be an I-95 shield, from when that highway was going to use US 1 as the Northeast Expressway. More about that on the US 1 page linked below. The next sign over, as you can see, changes every so often. The Storrow Drive detour is a bit erroneous... Storrow doesn't begin till much further west; what the sign refers to is actually Embankment Drive (EB side is Charles Street), or MA 3 NB/MA 28 SB. Finally, another erroneous sign... you need to follow the Gilmore Bridge and Land Blvd. to hit Mem Drive, but just like Storrow on the south side, Memorial is the brand name for the through roads on the north side.


If you go straight after coming off the Gilmore Bridge at the diamond interchange with MA 99, you'd be going toward Thompson Square. These signs (on the NB and SB ramps, respectively)are from July 1973, and show off the older MA-standard font.


SB and NB, respectively, just south of Sullivan Square - the scary thing is that these are probably permanent. Really, sign bolts aren't that expensive, no need to share.

Original state-name shield approaching the Square NB.


Signage on MA 99 NB. The old TO on the right probably had an I-93 shield that looks just like the one above (which is on the left side of the road), and you see blank space on both gantries where the signage for the overpass once was. (Note that it has been over a year since demolition and still this piece of the overpass remains.) MA 38 may now begin from Sullivan Square and head up to Somerville - and by "now", I mean for the last 30 years - but MassHighway hasn't even gotten that straight yet.


The old overpass is finally coming down, and just this little bit at the southern end of the square remains: one support pillar and beam, and the approach ramp underneath which MA 99 tunnels. The crows are also trying to get in their last appreciation of the structure.


Closeup of the guiderail in the previous pic, which looks like it dates from the construction of the overpass waaaaay back when.


Interestingly, the overpass has become more accessible now that most of it is gone.


Looking at one of the horizontal deck joints.


A view from MA 99 SB into what once was concrete and now is daylight.


This is about where the underpass merges into the Alford Street Bridge approach.


Clearly no longer in use, these rails look like they carried streetcars into Everett from Somerville and/or Charlestown.


Right before the Alford Street Bridge is this Jersey-style LGS - never seen the black shield background on a Mass. LGS before.


I just think this is cool.


Big block of wood, Bow St. at Lynde St. a half-block east of MA 99 in Everett.


White on black one-way sign entering the rotary at MA 16. I see no trace of an arrow, just a Mass. DPW credit. So all I can tell you is that it's old. Probably what happened is similar to the fate of the MA shields: the white arrow faded to the same black as the background, and the black lettering faded to the white backing of the letters.


The curb in that rotary is similarly old.


The only old paddle signs in the rotary. MA 16 actually passes underneath, and one must use a disconnected piece of the Revere Beach Parkway to access it from MA 99.

To US 1
Onto I-93
To MA 16
Back to Massachusetts Roads
Back to Roads