Massachusetts Roads - Storrow Drive/Old US 1/MA 28

Storrow Drive east of Fenway, MA 28/Old US 1


All eastbound; commentary coming.


The last photo was at the top of the MA 2A/Mass. Ave. ramp (the only ramp at that interchange), but the shield is gone now. It dated from the 1970's, the last usage of the old-style Mass. font (it survived longer on wooden signs than metal).


All westbound ("US 1 S") - the last photo, with light-up curve sign, is on the exit ramp before it diverges in direction from the mainline. Notice that MA 2A is signed to the north, even though it's Mass. Ave. that goes to the north, and MA 2A is strictly an east-west route.
Wait a minute, US 1? The signs were correct until 1990, except the third picture has a black square background like NJ's BGS's, and the fourth should have a yellow, not green, bottom banner. A few things to note:
1) The (now former) MDC is very much behind the times in figuring out that US 1 is now on I-93.
2) The MDC's signage is very inconsistent.
3) The MDC doesn't like spelling out directions.
4) Don't trust the MDC.
US 1 SB used to come off the Tobin Bridge, cross the Charles with I-93, and then follow Storrow Drive signage along Embankment Drive to Storrow. The above signage took it down the Fenway and other assorted roads (go to the Old US 1 link at the bottom of the page). NB did the opposite, substituting Charles Street for Embankment Drive. Some of the MDC's US 1 signs were purportedly erected after 1 was switched onto I-93, and that wouldn't surprise me at all.


Two pictures of the old SB Mass. Ave./EB MA 2A ramp to EB Storrow Drive, now a dog park and general open space, with trees lining the embankment that was the ramp. It used to leave Mass. Ave. in the median of Storrow (photo 1), curving slightly toward the WB side, then looping tightly around (photo 2) and left-merging with the EB side. Since slow ramp traffic would then have a blind merge with fast-moving, unsuspecting Storrow Drive traffic, it's for the better this is gone - traffic can turn right onto Beacon St. and right again to get on Storrow, anyway. There is only one other ramp at this interchange, WB-NB.


Following the tight curve off of Mass. Ave. is an old white fence, in the style of old MDC highways, so you know there was a road here. Also visible are pavement remnants inside the old ramp alignment.


A bunch more old/ugly MDC signs on the WB side. At least the last one's cracked, so it's interesting (it's right by the Fenway interchange).


Storrow Drive EB in April 2005, with new signage and the new underpass ramp to I-93 NB, the last piece of the Big Dig to open. MA 28 NB only gets one lane here, while I-93 steals two, probably just a temporary condition due to construction. MA 3 SB traffic still hasn't merged from the right, so it cannot access this ramp. When it does (to the right in the third photo), Storrow Drive ends at Charles Street; there will obviously (see the MA 28 sign in the second photo and study the sign text in the first photo) be two lanes going to Leverett Circle, not just one, but construction forces all middle lane traffic to I-93 NB.


The famous REVERSE THE CURSE, mounted on the Longfellow Bridge, on Storrow Drive WB just after it stops being Embankment Drive. There of course is a button-copy V under the S, but it's greened over. Naturally, the MDC didn't want to replace or repair this sign... but it sure didn't seem to be working. After the Red Sox finally won in 2004, there was an elaborate ceremony to take down the sign. Two out of three lanes were closed, backing traffic up even onto I-93, but of course the ceremony is more important than keeping traffic moving... While it existed, it matched signs on Soldiers Field Road and MA 2/US 3 as the only MDC button-copy signs I know of to still exist, and some of the only copy left in all of Massachusetts. As long as Big Dig paraphernalia continues to line the walkways crossing the Central Artery swath, though, there will be easily accessible photographs of early signage that can join these.

Continue west on Storrow Drive
Continue south on old US 1 at Fenway
Continue south on MA 28
Continue north on MA 28 (MA 3, Leverett Circle/Embankment Rd./Charles St./Longfellow Br.)
Continue north on MA 28 (MA 3, Charles River Dam)
Back to Storrow Drive main page
Back to MA 28 main page


Into Boston
To Newton
To Cambridge
Onto MA 2A, Massachusetts Ave.
Onto I-93
Onto modern US 1
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