DE 23 joins US 9/DE 404 for a concurrency on a four-lane divided highway before the road comes to a junction with DE 1. Here, DE 23/DE 404 ends, US 9 Bus. continues northeast, and US 9 heads east for a concurrency with DE 1. At this intersection, access from eastbound DE 404 to northbound DE 1 is provided by a reverse jughandle. DE 404 serves as a major route connecting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area to the Delaware Beaches. DE 404 also serves as part of a primary hurricane evacuation route from the Delaware Beaches to points inland. The section of the route between DE 5 in Harbeson and DE 1 in Five Points is designated as part of the Delaware's Bayshore Byway, a Delaware Byway. The highest annual average daily traffic along DE 404 is 22,186 vehicles along the US 13 concurrency with the lowest being 4,860 vehicles at the western terminus of DE 404 Bus. All of DE 404 is part of the National Highway System. By 1920, what would originally become DE 404 was an unimproved county road, with the section east of Bridgeville under contract as a state highway. The entire route of what would become DE 404 was completed as a state highway to a point northwest of Bridgeville by 1924. By 1931, the road was built as a state highway northwest to the Maryland border. DE 404 was designated to run from the Maryland border, where it connected to MD 404, southeast to DE 18 southeast of Bridgeville by 1936. The route followed its current alignment to Bridgeville, where it passed through the town on Market Street and South Main Street before picking up its current alignment east of US 13. At this time, what is now DE 404 past its then-eastern terminus was designated as part of DE 18. By 1987, DE 404 was extended east to DE 1 in Five Points, following DE 18 to Georgetown and US 9 (which had replaced a portion of DE 18) from Georgetown to Five Points. DE 404 Alt. was created to bypass Bridgeville to the north and east by 1990, following Newton Road and US 13. The alternate route became a part of mainline DE 404 by 1999, with the former DE 404 through Bridgeville becoming DE 404 Bus. In 1991, the Five Points intersection was reconfigured to separate the DE 23 and Plantation Road intersection from US 9/DE 404, with a short connector road linking US 9/DE 404 to the two roads.