---
title: "Maryland-Delaware Bordering Towns, On the Line or Near It"
url: https://33travels.com/maryland-delaware-bordering-towns/
author: "Tomas Herrera"
published: 2026-11-09
updated: 2026-11-09
place: "World"
---

# Maryland-Delaware Bordering Towns, On the Line or Near It

## TLDR

Only three places truly sit on the Maryland-Delaware line: **Delmar**, **Marydel**, and the **Ocean City / Fenwick Island** pairing at the Atlantic. Everything else people call a “border town” (Elkton, Newark, Chesapeake City, Henderson, Goldsboro, Greensboro, Selbyville) is a few miles from the line, not on it. The table below sorts them out.

## Contents

- [Why the line is where it is](#why-the-line-is-where-it-is)
- [Quick reference table](#quick-reference-table)
- [North: Cecil County meets New Castle County](#north-cecil-county-meets-new-castle-county)
- [Middle: Kent, Queen Anne’s and Caroline](#middle-kent-queen-annes-and-caroline)
- [South: Wicomico meets Sussex](#south-wicomico-meets-sussex)
- [The coast: Ocean City and Fenwick Island](#the-coast-ocean-city-and-fenwick-island)
- [Crossing the line: taxes and practical notes](#crossing-the-line-taxes-and-practical-notes)

## Why the line is where it is

![From behind anonymous person examining antique world map printed on large paper in blue colors in dark room](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/old-map.jpeg)

Delaware’s western edge looks arbitrary because it is a compromise. William Penn and the Calvert family, who held Maryland, argued over the land for most of a century. Penn held Delaware’s “Lower Counties” through a grant from the Duke of York, and Maryland’s charter claimed some of the same ground. A court settlement in 1750 and an agreement in 1760 finally set the terms, and the surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon spent the 1760s turning those terms into stone markers on the ground.

The Delaware-Maryland boundary has three pieces. The **Transpeninsular Line** runs east to west across the Delmarva Peninsula from the Atlantic at Fenwick Island to a point called the Middle Point. From there the **West Line** runs due north. Near the top, the border reaches the curved boundary around New Castle, the Twelve-Mile Circle.

“Mason-Dixon Line” usually means the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary, but Mason and Dixon surveyed these Delaware segments too. That is why you will see the name on Delaware roadside markers. None of the towns below sit on the famous east-west Pennsylvania line, but several sit on its less famous cousins. For a longer list of towns along the border on both sides, see the [complete list of Delaware–Maryland bordering towns](https://33travels.com/delaware-maryland-bordering-towns/).

## Quick reference table

| Town | State and county | Relation to the line | Approx. population |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Delmar | Maryland (Wicomico) and Delaware (Sussex) | Twin towns, split by the line | About 3,000 (MD), under 2,000 (DE) |
| Marydel | Maryland (Caroline) and Delaware (Kent) | Straddles the West Line | About 150 (MD side) |
| Ocean City | Maryland (Worcester) | Abuts Fenwick Island | About 7,000 |
| Fenwick Island | Delaware (Sussex) | On the line | Under 500 |
| Elkton | Maryland (Cecil) | A few miles off | About 15,500 |
| Newark | Delaware (New Castle) | A few miles off | About 30,000 |
| Chesapeake City | Maryland (Cecil) | A few miles off | About 700 |
| Henderson | Maryland (Caroline) | One to two miles off | About 150 |
| Goldsboro | Maryland (Caroline) | Near the line | About 250 |
| Greensboro | Maryland (Caroline) | About three miles off | About 2,000 |
| Selbyville | Delaware (Sussex) | A mile or two off | A little over 2,000 |

Populations are rounded from recent [U.S. Census Bureau](https://www.census.gov/) counts, so treat them as ballpark figures.

## North: Cecil County meets New Castle County

The top of the border is where most people mean when they say “Maryland-Delaware line,” because I-95 and U.S. 40 cross it and millions of drivers pass through without noticing. No town straddles the line here. Instead you get two anchors on either side.

**Elkton, Maryland** is the Cecil County seat, about four miles from Delaware. Its claim to fame is paperwork. From the 1910s until Maryland added a waiting period in 1938, couples from Delaware, Pennsylvania and farther away came to Elkton for fast, no-questions weddings, and the town carried the nickname “Marriage Capital of the East.” The chapels are mostly gone, but the courthouse district still has the old wedding-business storefronts.

**Newark, Delaware** is a different animal: a university town of roughly 30,000 built around the University of Delaware, with a Main Street full of student bars and bookstores. It sits a few miles from the Maryland line, and the point where Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania meet lies just northwest of it. Elkton and Newark are about a 15-minute drive apart, which makes them the closest “pair” in the north even though a state line runs between them.

**Chesapeake City, Maryland** earns a mention for the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which cuts across the narrow neck of the peninsula just east of town. The canal is a working shipping channel, and the old waterfront streets are worth a short walk. The line is a few miles away.

## Middle: Kent, Queen Anne’s and Caroline

![A picturesque village nestled among lush green hills under a clear blue sky.](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/small-town-3.jpeg)

South of the Elkton-Newark corridor, the West Line runs through farm country for roughly 80 miles. This stretch is thin on towns and heavy on soybean fields. Two things make it interesting: the one true straddler, and a cluster of small Maryland towns hugging the line.

**Marydel** is the real find. The name is a mash of Maryland and Delaware, and the town is split by the West Line between Caroline County, Maryland and Kent County, Delaware. The [Maryland State Archives](https://www.msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/37mun/marydel/html/m.html) lists the incorporated Maryland side at a couple of hundred residents at most, so the whole place can be crossed on foot in about the time it takes to read this paragraph. The Delaware half is unincorporated. A few minutes on foot takes you from one state to the other with no sign beyond the road marker.

Nearby on the Maryland side:

- **Henderson** sits only a mile or two from the line, with a population around 150.
- **Goldsboro** is a short drive from Marydel and has a population around 250.
- **Greensboro** is the largest of the three at about 2,000 residents, roughly three miles from Delaware, and sits on the Choptank River.

None of these touch the border. They’re “bordering” in the sense that a Delaware license plate in the grocery store parking lot is unremarkable.

## South: Wicomico meets Sussex

![Aerial view capturing the vibrant city streets of Woodland, CA at sunset.](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/main-street.jpeg)

Delmar is the answer to “which town is split by the Maryland-Delaware line,” and the town knows it. The slogan is “The Little Town Too Big for One State.”

The Transpeninsular Line runs along State Street, with Delmar, Delaware on the north side and Delmar, Maryland on the south. The name is the same trick as Marydel: **Del**aware plus **Mar**yland. Both towns grew up around the railroad that came through in the 1850s, and they have stayed tied together since. The Maryland half is the larger, at about 3,000 people to Delaware’s roughly 1,800, and the two share a high school sports identity as the Delmar Wildcats.

What to do in Delmar:

- **Heritage Day**, the annual festival, includes a tug-of-war across the state line, with a Maryland team pulling against a Delaware team. The line is the center mark.
- **Delaware International Speedway** on the Delaware side runs short-track racing on summer weekends.
- **The line itself.** The boundary is marked in the street and by stone and plaque markers in town. Standing with one foot in each state is the standard photo, and it takes about thirty seconds.

A few miles east, the Transpeninsular Line passes just south of **Selbyville, Delaware**, a poultry-and-farm town with a small main street. West of Delmar, the line runs out into fields to the Middle Point, the stone where the East-West line meets the West Line and turns north. It is on private farmland and not a destination.

## The coast: Ocean City and Fenwick Island

![Beautiful seaside landscape with a wooden boardwalk leading to a sandy beach in Galicia, Spain.](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/beach-boardwalk.jpeg)

The line starts at the water. At the Atlantic end, **Fenwick Island, Delaware** sits on one side of it and the northern edge of **Ocean City, Maryland** on the other. The Fenwick Island Lighthouse, lit in 1859, stands almost on the line, and the original 1751 boundary stone, the Fenwick Stone, is nearby.

The contrast between the two is the reason to include them. Ocean City has roughly 7,000 year-round residents and a 10-mile stretch of boardwalk, high-rises and summer crowds that push the population into the hundreds of thousands. Fenwick Island has fewer than 500 year-round residents and a quiet beach scene with no boardwalk. You can walk from one to the other along the beach without being sure which state you are in.

Locals use this. Delaware shops, restaurants and beach rentals sit within a couple of miles of the line, and many Ocean City residents cross north for tax-free shopping.

## Crossing the line: taxes and practical notes

The tax gap drives most of the cross-border traffic. Delaware has no state sales tax, and taxes businesses on gross receipts instead, according to the [Delaware Division of Revenue](https://revenue.delaware.gov/). Maryland charges a 6 percent sales tax, per the [Comptroller of Maryland](https://www.marylandtaxes.gov/). On a $1,000 purchase, that is $60.

Some practical points:

- Maryland residents are technically expected to pay use tax on items bought tax-free in another state and brought home, though it is rarely enforced on small purchases.
- Delaware’s fuel tax per gallon is lower than Maryland’s, so pump prices near the line often favor Delaware. Check prices on the day.
- Driving distances in the north are short: Elkton to Newark is a 15-minute drive, and the Marydel crossing is a matter of steps.
- Cell service can briefly switch carriers or area codes near the line, and Maryland and Delaware speed limits and traffic rules differ slightly. Watch the signs.

If you want a single-day trip that hits the best of it, start with Delmar and its State Street line in the morning, then drive east to the Fenwick Island Lighthouse by the afternoon. Elkton and Newark make a better pairing for a half-day, and Marydel is a five-minute stop on a longer drive up U.S. 13.