U.S. Route 13 in Pennsylvania
U.S. Route 13 (US 13) is a United States Numbered Highway running from Fayetteville, North Carolina, north to Morrisville, Pennsylvania. The route runs for through the Delaware Valley in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The route enters the state from Delaware in Marcus Hook, Delaware County. It continues northeast through Delaware County, passing through the city of Chester before heading through suburban areas along Chester Pike to Darby. US 13 enters the city of Philadelphia on Baltimore Avenue and runs through West Philadelphia to University City, where it turns north along several city streets before heading east across the Schuylkill River along Girard Avenue. The route turns north and heads to North Philadelphia, where it runs northeast along Hunting Park Avenue. US 13 becomes concurrent with US 1 on Roosevelt Boulevard, continuing into Northeast Philadelphia. US 13 splits southeast on a one-way pair of streets before heading northeast out of the city on Frankford Avenue. The route continues into Bucks County as Bristol Pike, heading northeast to Bristol, where it turns into a divided highway. US 13 becomes a freeway in Tullytown and continues north to its terminus at US 1 in Falls Township, near Morrisville. US 13 roughly parallels Interstate 95 (I-95) through its course in Pennsylvania. The routing dates back to colonial times as part of the King's Highway. In the 19th century, the road was part of several turnpikes, including the Darby and Ridley Turnpike (or Chester Pike) between Chester and Darby and the Frankford and Bristol Turnpike between Philadelphia and Morrisville. In the early 20th century, these private turnpikes became public roads. US 13 was designated through Pennsylvania in 1926, running between the Delaware border in Marcus Hook and US 1 in Morrisville. The route was designated concurrent with Pennsylvania Route 91 (PA 91) between the Delaware border and Philadelphia and PA 32 between Philadelphia and Morrisville; these concurrent state route designations were removed in 1928. US 13 originally ran through Darby on Main Street and Philadelphia on Woodland Avenue, Market Street, Broad Street, Diamond Street, Front Street, Kensington Avenue, and Frankford Avenue. In the 1930s, the route was shifted to use Macdade Boulevard, Whitby Avenue, 44th Street, Powelton Avenue, 31st and 32nd streets, Spring Garden Street, Broad Street, Roosevelt Boulevard, Levick Street, and Frankford Avenue through the city; it ran concurrent with US 1 through most of the city. Between the 1930s and 1960s, three bypass routes existed for portions of US 13 between Marcus Hook and Philadelphia. The divided highway alignment between Bristol and Tullytown was completed by 1950. The US 13 freeway between Tullytown and US 1 was completed in 1955, shifting the northern terminus to its current location. This freeway was once considered to become a part of I-95 that would pass through Trenton, New Jersey, before it was decided for the Interstate to bypass Trenton to the north. A US 13 freeway was again proposed between I-95 near Bristol and Tullytown in 1969 but was ultimately cancelled. The route was shifted