Western Maryland in the context of "Interstate 70 in Maryland"

Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's sixth-most populous incorporated city and is the most populous city in the Maryland Panhandle.

Hagerstown anchors the Hagerstown metropolitan area extending into West Virginia. It makes up the northwesternmost portion of the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area in the heart of the Great Appalachian Valley. The population of the metropolitan area in 2020 was 293,844. Greater Hagerstown was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the state of Maryland and among the fastest growing in the United States, as of 2009.

U.S. Route 522 (US 522) is a spur route of US 22 in the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The U.S. Highway travels in a north-south direction, and runs 308.59 miles (496.63 km) from US 60 near Powhatan, Virginia, to its northern terminus at US 11 and US 15 near Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. US 522 serves many small cities and towns in the Piedmont, Blue Ridge Mountains, and northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The highway serves the Virginia communities of Goochland, Mineral, Culpeper, the town of Washington, and Front Royal and the independent city of Winchester. US 522 then follows the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians north and then east through the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, a 2-mile-wide (3.2 km) stretch of Western Maryland, and South Central Pennsylvania to its terminus in the Susquehanna Valley. The highway serves Berkeley Springs, West Virginia; Hancock, Maryland; and the Pennsylvania communities of McConnellsburg, Mount Union, Lewistown, and Middleburg.

Garrett County (/ɡɛrɪt/) is the westernmost county of the U.S. state of Maryland, completely within the Appalachian Mountains. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 28,806, making it the third-least populous county in Maryland. Its county seat is Oakland. The county was named for John Work Garrett (1820–1884), president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Created from Allegany County in 1872, it was the last county to be formed in the state. The county is part of the Western Maryland region of the state. Garrett County is bordered by four West Virginia counties and to the north the Maryland–Pennsylvania boundary known as the Mason–Dixon line. The eastern border with Allegany County was defined by the Bauer Report, submitted to Governor Lloyd Lowndes, Jr. on November 9, 1898. The Potomac River and State of West Virginia lie to the south and west.

Garrett County lies in the Allegheny Mountains, which here form the western flank of the Appalachian Mountain Range. Hoye-Crest, a summit along Backbone Mountain, is the highest point in Maryland at an elevation of 3,360 feet (1,020 m).

Washington County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. The population was 154,705 as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is Hagerstown. The county is part of the Western Maryland region of the state.

Washington County was the first county in the United States to be named for the Revolutionary War general (and later President) George Washington. Washington County is one of three Maryland counties recognized by the Appalachian Regional Commission as being part of Appalachia. The county borders southern Pennsylvania to the north, Northern Virginia to the south, and the Martinsburg Panhandle of West Virginia to the south and west. Washington County is included in the Hagerstown metropolitan area, which is also included in the Washington metropolitan area.

Hancock is a town in Washington County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,557 at the 2020 census. The Western Maryland community is notable for being located at the narrowest part of the state. The north–south distance from the Pennsylvania state line to the West Virginia state line is only 1.8 miles (2.9 km) at Hancock.