Maryland Route 343

Maryland Route 343
Maryland Route 343 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by MDSHA
Length:	11.29 mi (18.17 km)
Existed:	1927 – present
Tourist routes:	Chesapeake Country Scenic Byway
Major junctions
West end:	Beginning of state maintenance in Hudson
	MD 341 in Cambridge
East end:	US 50 in Cambridge
Location
Counties:	Dorchester
Highway system
Maryland highway system Interstate US State Scenic Byways ← MD 342 MD 344 →

Maryland Route 343 (MD 343) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Hudson Road, the state highway runs 11.29 miles (18.17 km) from Hudson in northwestern Dorchester County east to U.S. Route 50 (US 50) in Cambridge. MD 343 was paved in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The state highway originally passed through downtown Cambridge, ending just west of its present terminus. After the original Choptank River Bridge was completed in the mid-1930s, MD 343 was truncated to Sunburst Highway. In the mid-1950s, the state highway was rerouted along Washington Street to Race Street, where it ended at MD 16. Finally, MD 343 was extended to its present terminus when MD 16 bypassed Cambridge in the late 1960s.

MD 343 begins where state maintenance commences on Hudson Road a short distance west of Cook Point Road near the hamlet of Hudson. The state highway heads east through a mix of farmland and forest, collecting roads that serve the peninsulas split by creeks that flow into the Choptank River to the north and the Little Choptank River to the south. MD 343 also passes through the hamlets of Cornersville and Lloyds. Shortly after passing Horns Point Road, which leads to the Cambridge Country Club and the Horn Point Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the state highway passes a few residential subdivisions and enters the city limits of Cambridge, where the highway's name changes to Washington Street.

MD 343 intersects High Street, the old alignment of MD 343, before the route crosses Race Street, which heads south as MD 341 toward MD 16. The state highway continues east into an industrial area, where the highway crosses the Seaford Line of the Maryland and Delaware Railroad and meets the southern end of Dorchester Avenue. MD 343 continues east past Crusader Road to the highway's eastern terminus at US 50 (Sunburst Highway). Traffic on eastbound MD 343 must use Crusader Avenue to access westbound US 50.