US highways in Charleston, SC

Photo credits: David Dawson
More research: Mike Roberson

Below is the last eastbound US 52/eastbound US 78 signage in Charleston:

Dawson, Sep. 2001

We're looking south on Rivers Avenue, where US 78 is still co-signed with US 52. About a mile ahead, the two routes split and continue down opposite sides of a railroad (US 52 follows Meeting Street, and US 78 uses King Street). About 3 miles ahead, maps indicate "Spur US 52" splits off Meeting on Morrison Drive (that becomes Bay Street and goes all the way downtown). And about 4 miles ahead, these two routes ostensibly terminate shy of downtown, at Line Street (just past the US 17 viaduct) - two blocks from each other, and one block from the east terminus of I-26. It's been that way for years, ever since US 17 was still on surface streets:

Gousha, c. 1959

The King exit from US 17 is not signed for US 78 (instead, my understanding is that signage on US 17 directs motorists to use I-26 to get to West US 52/US 78). All this is enough to make you think maybe SC DoT has re-routed US 52/78 traffic onto I-26 all the way from North Charleston to US 17. But their official route lists do not bear that out, and there are a few signs which indicate US 52 and US 78 still use surface streets. The shot below is one of them:

Dawson, Sep. 2001

That's where northbound Morrison Drive curves into eastbound Mt. Pleasant Street at Meeting (this is actually the north end of "Spur US 52", another poorly-marked route). For some reason mainline US 52 is not signed to the east (left) at all. The signs in the distance are shown close-up below:

Dawson, Sep. 2001

As you can see, US 78 is signed both directions on King from Mt. Pleasant.

There is one intersection in Charleston that historically marked the endpoint of three different US routes:

Nitzman, May 2007

That's looking south on King Street. Today, US 78 ends one block behind the camera (at Line), but originally it ended here at Columbus Street. Why here? Well, before US 17 was rerouted to run along the coast, this was also southbound US 17, which continued to the right on Spring (one block ahead). From 1932-1936, US 701's original beginning was to the left on Columbus Street (it then went north on Meeting, then east on Line). So at the time, US 78 ended where US 701 began, and vice versa.

After US 17's routing through South Carolina was changed in 1935, northbound traffic came up King to this point, then east on Columbus. US 52 was commissioned to take over the former route of US 17, so this became US 52's original terminus.

More photos and info about the actual endpoints of these routes can be found on my main US 52, US 78, and US 701 pages.