End of US highway 17

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Photo credits: Justin Cozart; Robert Droz; J.P. Nasiatka; Alex Nitzman; Charles Pannunzio; Adam Prince; Michael Summa

Approx. time period North terminus South terminus
1926-1932 Fredericksburg, VA Jacksonville, FL
1932-1965 Fredericksburg, VA Punta Gorda, FL
1965-present Winchester, VA Punta Gorda, FL

US 17 was among the original 1926 routes; its original south end was in Jacksonville FL (you can view photos from there on this page). The north terminus used to be at US 1 in Fredericksburg VA (you can view photos from there on this page).

In 1932 the south end of US 17 was extended to its present terminus at US 41 in Punta Gorda FL. In town, the route is separated onto one-way pairs; approach signage on Marion Avenue (southbound US 17) looks like this:

Cozart, Dec. 2003

The signs beyond the traffic light are shown more closely below:

Cozart, Dec. 2003

Those green signs in the distance (at northbound US 41) are shown in the photo below:

Nasiatka, Jan. 2003

US 41, or Tamiami Trail, is also split into a one-way pair here. About four blocks ahead is the left turn to southbound US 41 - just before you reach it, there's an "End" sign:

Droz, 2000

That had changed slightly within a few years - now the US 41 sign is on an overhead:

Cozart, Dec. 2003

(Justin was last there in June 2005, and noticed that "End" signpost was apparently a casualty of Hurricane Charley. In its place was a redundant "South US 41 left turn" sign. Hopefully a new "End" sign will replace it soon, but no such luck as of late 2009.) Anyway, if you were to go left from there onto southbound US 41, you used to see the span-wire signs shown below...

Nasiatka

...but now, the post-Charley signage looks like this:

Nitzman, Mar. 2007

The south beginning of US 17 is to the left on Olympia Avenue; the signs in the distance are shown close-up below:

Nitzman, Mar. 2007

If you turn left there, you'll soon see the first northbound US 17 confirmation sign...

Nitzman, Mar. 2007

...and actually there's a twin sign across the road from there. We're looking northeast on Olympia; southbound US 41 is just behind the camera, and northbound is a few blocks ahead. Marion (southbound US 17) is one block to the left. Below is the signage from northbound US 41:

Cozart, Dec. 2003

Here's an older photo from the same direction:

Summa, 1975

In 1965 US 17 was extended northward to Winchester VA. US 11, US 50, and US 522 all converge in downtown Winchester. At the time (and right up until 2010), all routes were directed onto a one-way pair consisting of Braddock Street (southbound) and Cameron Street (northbound). The shot below was looking south on Braddock, approaching the intersection with Gerrard Street, where the routes begin to diverge. Suddenly, a US 17 sign appears:

Prince, 2000

Some of the signs are a little dark, but the one on the right indicates that US 11 continues straight on Braddock, which immediately turns into Valley Avenue and heads toward Harrisonburg. (US 11 was the original highway serving the Shenandoah Valley, before I-81 was built.) The middle sign routes US 17, US 50, and US 522 traffic to the left, onto Gerrard. Signage heading east on Gerrard once looked like this:

Summa, 1995

That's since been replaced, but the newer version still shows basically the same info, including the US 17 shield. At Gerrard and Cameron, there's a five-point intersection with Millwood Avenue, onto which all three routes are directed:

Summa, 1995

That was looking east on Gerrard. Note the angled arrow - that's because of the angle at which Millwood comes in from the southeast. (That I-81 shield was replaced by 2000, and the entire assembly is gone now. In fact, by 2000 all references to US 17 on the mainline had been removed between here and I-81. US 522 splits off just past the I-81 interchange, while US 17 and US 50 are co-signed for another 20 miles or so, to Paris.)

So, based on those older signs, one could conclude that the north beginning of US 17 was at the intersection of Braddock and Gerrard, and the north end was at the aforementioned five-way (Gerrard/Cameron/Millwood).

However, in 2010, Cameron and Braddock were both changed back to two-way streets, and some of the highway designations downtown appear to have been changed as well. For one thing, westbound US 50 traffic is directed to use Cork Street (instead of Picadilly)...

Pannunzio, Mar. 2010

...and as you can see there, a brand-new "End" sign has been posted for US 17. So it would seem the designation has been extended north on Cameron, ending at Cork. Why that particular intersection, I'm not sure, but directly across the street, there is a new "Begin" sign for traffic heading south:

Pannunzio, Mar. 2010