The northern part of the highway passes through the villages of Chicamuxen, Rison, Marbury, and Mason Springs on the south side of Mattawoman Creek.

MD 224 originally included Livingston Road north from Pomonkey through Accokeek, Piscataway, and Oxon Hill in southwestern Prince George's County to Washington, D.C.

MD 224 was constructed from Mason Springs north to Bryans Road and from Oxon Hill south to Piscataway in the early to mid-1920s.

The highway was built from Mason Springs south to Rison in the mid-1920s and completed to its original southern terminus at Doncaster along what is now MD 344 in the late 1920s.

MD 224 heads west as two-lane undivided Riverside Road through densely forested southwestern Charles County, paralleling the left bank of the Potomac River about 1 mile (1.6 km) inland.

MD 224 passes along the southern edge of Chicamuxen Wildlife Management Area and intersects Stump Neck Road, which leads to the Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division.

The state highway passes through Mattawoman Natural Environmental Area, passes north of Henry E. Lackey High School, and intersects the northern end of MD 425 (Mason Springs Road) at Mason Springs before joining MD 225 (Hawthorne Road) to cross Mattawoman Creek.

The highway intersects the Indian Head Rail Trail and passing Maryland Airport before reaching its northern terminus at MD 227 (Pomfret Road) in the hamlet of Pomonkey.

[4] At the District of Columbia boundary in what is now Forest Heights, Livingston Road continued north to Atlantic Street, which connected with Nichols Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue), which headed north to a crossing of the Anacostia River at the site of the 11th Street Bridges.

That same year, another section of Livingston Road was graveled from the Charles–Prince George's county line southwest through Pomonkey to Mason Springs.

[13] The final piece of Livingston Road from Accokeek to the Charles–Prince George's county line was graveled starting in 1930 and completed by 1933.

[16] The need for upgrades to Livingston Road became acute by 1940 with the greatly increased activity at Fort Washington and the Indian Head Naval Powder Factory in the years before the United States entered World War II.