U.S. Route 21

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U.S. Route 21

Length:

395 mi^[1] (636 km)

Formed:

1926^[1]

South end:

Hunting Island S.P., SC

Major
junctions:

I-26/I-20 near Columbia, SC

I-85 at Charlotte, NC

North end:

in Wytheville, VA

United States Numbered Highways

U.S. Highway 21 in the pre-Interstate era was a north-south highway connecting the area around Lake Erie and the coastal South. One of the few true north-south routes to cross the middle Appalachian Mountains, it became an important corridor for motor traffic between northeastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, (with U.S. Highway 19) and western New York state and central North Carolina, central and southeastern South Carolina, and by connecting with other highways, coastal Georgia and most of Florida.

U.S. 21 originally (in 1926) connected Cleveland, Ohio and Yemassee, South Carolina. In 1935 it was extended to Beaufort, South Carolina, and was extended in 1953 to its current southern terminus at the Atlantic Coast at Hunting Island State Park, between the city of Beaufort and Fripp Island.^[2]

In the Interstate Highway era much of US 21 became an obvious corridor for a long-distance expressway. The West Virginia Turnpike between Charleston, West Virginia, and Princeton, West Virginia, was the first segment of a planned series of toll highways along or near U.S. 21 from Cleveland, Ohio to Charlotte, North Carolina All of the other toll highways were shelved in favor of freeways built with Interstate funding, these freeways and the West Virginia Turnpike, became Interstate 77, which completely supplants old U.S. 21 as a long-distance through route. Interstate 77 was later extended to Columbia, South Carolina, also within a few miles of U.S. 21.

Between Cleveland and Charleston, all but a relatively short segment of U.S. 21 was completely decommissioned in favor of Interstate 77, the relics being State Route 21. (And State Route 821 between Byesville, Ohio and Marietta, Ohio is "Old 21", and is strictly a local route).

Between Charleston and its current northern terminus at Wytheville, Virginia, almost all of U.S. 21 coincided with either U.S. Highway 60, U.S. Highway 19, or U.S. Highway 52, which remain as U.S. 21 was decommissioned. The short segment of U.S. 21 in southern West Virginia not coinciding with another U.S. route became an extension of West Virginia Route 16.

U.S. 21 has two concurrencies with I-77 in North Carolina. One is for five miles between Cornelius and Mooresville, but the better-known concurrency runs for 17 miles through Charlotte (starting at Exit 16, the Sunset Road interchange) and on into York County, South Carolina, where the two highways split at Exit 90 (Carowinds Boulevard), the exit that serves traffic going to the Carowinds theme park.

[edit] "Child" routes

U.S. 21 has or has had several related routes:

[edit] See also

U.S. Route 21 in Virginia

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b US Highways from US 1 to US 830 Robert V. Droz
^ End of US highway 21

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