Interstate 97 (I-97) is a north-south Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It runs entirely within Anne Arundel County, Maryland, for 17.62 miles (28.36 km) from U.S. Route 50/U.S. Route 301 (US 50/US 301) in Parole near Annapolis north to I-695 and I-895B in Brooklyn Park near Baltimore. The interstate is the primary highway between Baltimore and Annapolis. I‑97 connects Annapolis with Baltimore/Washington International Airport and links the northern Anne Arundel County communities of Crownsville, Millersville, Severna Park, Glen Burnie, and Ferndale. It is the second shortest primary Interstate Highway after I-87 in North Carolina.

Maryland Route 178 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Generals Highway, the highway runs 8.06 miles (12.97 km) from MD 450 in Parole north to Veterans Highway near Millersville. MD 178 connects Annapolis with Crownsville in central Anne Arundel County. The highway is indirectly named for George Washington, who traveled the highway in 1783 on his way to Annapolis to resign his commission in the Continental Army at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War. MD 178 was planned as early as 1910 as part of a western route between Baltimore and Annapolis. However, most of the highway south of MD 3 was not built until the early 1930s. The portion south of MD 3 served as a primary segment in the western corridor connecting Baltimore–Annapolis, until the construction of Interstate 97 (I-97) in the late 1980s.