State Route 9 (SR 9) is a numbered

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

, running from the

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

border at Berwick in the west to the Canada–US border with

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

in the east. SR 9 runs a total of .

Route description

State Route 9 is a meandering highway that works its way from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. It frequently runs concurrent with other highways listed below and also frequently changes direction. For instance, in

Kennebunk Kennebunk is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 11,536 at the 2020 census (The population does not include Kennebunkport, a separate town). Kennebunk is home to several beaches, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife ...

, State Route 9 travels in a westerly direction even though it is signed as eastbound. State Route 9 runs through most of Maine's major cities including

Biddeford Biddeford is a city in York County, Maine, United States. It is the principal commercial center of York County. Its population was 22,552 at the 2020 census. The twin cities of Saco and Biddeford include the resort communities of Biddeford Poo ...

, Saco, South Portland, Portland, Augusta, and Bangor. Over the years, a number of improvements have been made by the Route 9 Committee, a partnership of local government officials and business interests in the Baileyville-Calais area.

The Airline

The leg from Bangor to

is often referred to as "The Airline" commonly thought to be due to its shorter route than the older

U.S. 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

. (Before the coming of air travel, the term

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

often referred to such a shortcut.) Although anecdotes about unexploded ordnance deriving from bombers flying from the former

Dow Air Force Base Bangor Air National Guard Base is a United States Air National Guard base. Created in 1927 as the commercial Godfrey Field, the airfield was taken over by the U.S. Army just before World War II and renamed Godfrey Army Airfield and later Dow Ar ...

(now

Bangor International Airport Bangor International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport on the west side of the city of Bangor, in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. Owned and operated by the City of Bangor, the airport has a single runway measuring . F ...

) using a number of towers and landmarks along "The Airline", in fact the term goes back to the early 1850s as a contrast to the

shoreline A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

route. The last section of "The Airline" was paved in 1973 in Crawford and many old sections of the road are visible to the side of the present roadway. The "Whale's Back", a 2-mile stretch built atop an

esker An esker, eskar, eschar, or os, sometimes called an ''asar'', ''osar'', or ''serpent kame'', is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North Ame ...

in Hancock County was one of the most notable features of the highway until it was rebuilt.

Junction list

References

External links

* * *{{cite web, url = https://mainetoday.com/maine-outdoors/hiking-outdoors/hiking-maine-airline-road-bountiful-hikers , title =HIKING IN MAINE: AIRLINE ROAD IS BOUNTIFUL FOR HIKERS , author = Carey Kish , date =2017-11-13 009 Transportation in Washington County, Maine Transportation in Penobscot County, Maine Transportation in Kennebec County, Maine Transportation in York County, Maine Transportation in Cumberland County, Maine

Route description

The Airline

Junction list

See also

References

External links