page_title: Delaware Route 1
section_title: South of Dover
hierarchical_section_title: Delaware Route 1 / History / South of Dover
caption_attribution_description: Northbound Delaware Route 1 (Bay Road) from the overpass at the interchange with Delaware Route 12 (exit 86) in Frederica, Delaware
context_page_description: Delaware Route 1 is a 103.02-mile-long state highway in the U.S. state of Delaware. The route runs from the Maryland border in Fenwick Island, Sussex County, where the road continues south into that state as Maryland Route 528, north to an interchange with DE 58 in Christiana, New Castle County, where the road continues north as DE 7. Between Fenwick Island and Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Kent County, DE 1 is a four- to six-lane divided highway with at-grade intersections and occasional interchanges. The route heads north past the Delaware Beaches along the Atlantic Ocean before it runs northwest through rural areas, turning north at Milford to continue to Dover. Upon reaching Dover, DE 1 becomes the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, a four- to six-lane freeway that is tolled. Between Dover and Tybouts Corner, DE 1 parallels U.S. Route 13, crossing over and featuring interchanges with it multiple times. Past Tybouts Corner, the freeway heads north to Christiana, reaching an interchange with Interstate 95 a short distance before its terminus. DE 1 serves as the main north-south state route in Delaware, connecting the Delaware Beaches with the Dover and Wilmington areas.
context_section_description: The portion of DE 1 between Milford and Little Heaven was initially built as part of the DuPont Highway, a highway that spanned the state from Selbyville to Wilmington. The highway was proposed as a modern road that was part of a philanthropic measure. This roadway was planned to improve travel and bring economic development to Kent and Sussex counties. The DuPont Highway was to be modeled after the great boulevards of Europe and was to have a 200-foot (61 m) wide right-of-way consisting of a 40-foot (12 m) wide roadway for automobiles flanked by dual trolley lines, 30-foot (9.1 m) wide roadways for heavy vehicles, 15-foot (4.6 m) wide unpaved roadways for horses, and sidewalks. Utilities were to be buried underground below the horse roadways. The highway was also to include agricultural experimental stations and monuments for future surveying. Trolley revenues would help pay for the construction of the roadway. After portions of the DuPont Highway were built, these portions were planned to be turned over to the state at no charge.
  In 1911, the Coleman DuPont Road, Inc. was established and construction on the highway began. By 1912, construction was interrupted by litigation challenging both the constitutionality of the law establishing the road building corporation and the need for DuPont to acquire such a large right-of-way. DuPont would narrow the proposed right-of-way to 100 feet (30 m) in order to compromise with opponents of the highway in addition to offering landowers whose properties were affected by the highway five times the assessed value of the land five years after the highway was completed. The DuPont Highway would end up being built on a 60-foot (18 m) alignment with a 32-foot (9.8 m) wide roadway. The DuPont Highway north of Milford would be both designed and constructed by Delaware State Highway Department (DSHD). A portion of the road north of Milford and from Frederica to Little Heaven were completed by 1920. The portion of the DuPont Highway from north of Milford to Frederica was under construction in 1920 and completed by 1923, the same year the last section of the entire Selbyville–Wilmington highway was completed near Odessa. When the U.S. Highway System was designated in 1926, this portion of the DuPont Highway became a part of US 113.
  The portion of DE 1 between Little Heaven and Dover Air Force Base was built as part of a Dover bypass for US 113. This bypass was built atop existing Bay Road north of the present-day DE 9 interchange and on a new alignment south of there. The new highway between Little Heaven and Bay Road would cross the St. Jones River at a site called Barkers Landing. Between December 1931 and the end of 1933, DSHD constructed a causeway across 3,150 feet (960 m) of the marsh on the east bank of the river, a process that required multiple applications of fill dirt and dynamite to create a stable surface for a modern highway. A Scherzer rolling lift bascule bridge was constructed across the St. Jones River in 1934. Bay Road was widened and the new sections of highway were built with 20-foot (6.1 m) wide concrete pavement starting in 1934. US 113 was relocated to the bypass when the new highway opened for Memorial Day in 1935.
  US 113 was widened into a divided highway from north of Milford to south of Frederica and around Dover Air Force Base in 1959. A four-lane divided bypass to the east of Frederica was constructed in 1965, with the former alignment of US 113 through Frederica now Frederica Road. US 113 between Frederica and Little Heaven was expanded in 1975. US 113 between Little Heaven and Dover Air Force Base was expanded to a divided highway in 1984 and 1985; this project included replacing the two-lane drawbridge over the St. Jones River with a four-lane girder bridge.
  What would become DE 1 between Milford and Rehoboth Beach was originally a county road by 1920. By 1924, the road was proposed as a state highway between Nassau and Rehoboth Beach. A year later, the state highway was completed between Milford and Cedar Creek and from Nassau to just west of Rehoboth Beach, 
caption: DE 1 northbound at the DE 12 interchange in Frederica
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