Md. Urges Tourists to Leave the Interstates Behind

The route begins at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, where the road is known as the Baltimore National Pike.

Along the way, travelers will pass the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, the site of the oldest railroad station in the country.

After you leave Baltimore, but before crossing the Patapsco River, is the small town of Oella, which is filled with stone and brick houses where textile and paper mill workers once lived. So did African American mathematician Benjamin Banneker, who helped survey the District.

In Frederick, you can visit Francis Scott Key's law office and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

Then you make your way into Hagerstown, which was given the nickname "Hub City" because so many railroad companies were linked there.

Booth's Escape encompasses a 66-mile journey from the District to Popes Creek on the edge of Charles County. A little farther north, you can pick up the Religious Freedom Tour at Port Tobacco and follow it 189 miles to Point Lookout on Southern Maryland's southern tip.

According to the guidebook, Booth's Escape provides travelers with "familiar and lesser known Civil War stories."

After assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, Booth escaped Washington, coming out Old Branch Avenue and Brandywine Road to a tavern operated by Mary Surratt. Booth would later head south into Waldorf and Port Tobacco before making his way into Virginia.

Byron said it was time to update the guidebook to include such byways not included in a 2000 printing.

In addition to Booth's Escape, the state added three other nationally significant themes: Star-Spangled Banner, Antietam Campaign, and the Mason and Dixon byways.

Anyone interested in ordering a copy of the free guidebook should call 877-MD-BYWAY. You can also go to http://www.visitmaryland.org or http://www.marylandroads.com to place an order.