the road briefly traverses the northeast corner of that state as MD 896 before heading north into Pennsylvania as PA 896. DE 896 has an annual average daily traffic count ranging from a high of 48,492 vehicles at the I-95 interchange to a low of 3,783 vehicles at the intersection with Cleveland Avenue in Newark. The portion of DE 896 south of DE 273 is part of the National Highway System. History What is now DE 896 originally existed as a county road by 1920, with the portion between Boyds Corner and Mount Pleasant proposed as a state highway at that time. Four years later, the state highway between Boyds Corner and Mount Pleasant was completed while the rest of the route was paved. A year later, the road was upgraded to a state highway between Mount Pleasant and Summit Bridge. In 1936, the road became a state highway between Summit Bridge and Glasgow; at this time none of present-day DE 896 was assigned a route number. On December 21, 1936, the grade crossing with the Pennsylvania Railroad (now Amtrak's Northeast Corridor) along College Avenue in Newark was replaced with a bridge over the tracks. In 1938, the state highway between Glasgow and Newark was built on a new alignment, bypassing a narrow winding alignment that ran further to the east along what is now Old Cooch's Bridge Road. This road was built to give Newark a better road connection to places further south. DE 896 was designated by 1938 to run from DE 71 in Summit Bridge north to the Maryland border northwest of Newark, passing through Newark on College Avenue and New London Road. At the state line, the road briefly became MD 278 before becoming PA 896 in Pennsylvania. MD 278 became MD 896 in 1942 to match DE 896 and PA 896. DE 896 was extended south to US 13 south of Townsend by 1957, following DE 71 between Summit Bridge and Middletown and replacing DE 71 between Middletown and US 13. Two years later, US 301S was designated along DE 71/DE 896 between Summit Bridge and Middletown. The route was realigned to a new Summit Bridge a short distance to the west in 1960, with a part of the former DE 896 north of the bridge becoming a part of a realigned US 301S/DE 71. The US 301S designation along DE 71/DE 896 between Middletown