End of historic US highway 121 [i]

View a map showing this route.
Picture
Summa
1926-1934
  • North: Ft. Chiswell or Wytheville, VA
  • South: Lexington, NC
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c. 1931, Gousha
Today's US 121 was not commissioned until 2005.  Among the original 1926 routes there was a different US 121, which was shown in its entirety on the preceding map.  US 121's south end was at US 70 in Lexington.  This photo was looking south on 5th Street:
​Today 5th is one-way southbound, but originally it ran both ways, and that was the south end of US 121; US 70 ran along the crossroad (Main Street).  Today NC hwy. 8 is the only signed route through there.

On its north, US 121 went at least as far as US 11 at Ft. Chiswell.  Since its number implies a branch of US 21, it seems like it should have been overlapped with US 11 a few miles to the west, in order to junction with US 21 in Wytheville.  However, AASHO's 1927 route log indicated that it did not quite make it to Wytheville:
Some maps do show the two routes duplexed between Ft. Chiswell and Wytheville.  But other maps do not show this duplex, and VDoT route logs from the timeframe indicate that US 121 ended at Ft. Chiswell without ever meeting its implied parent route.  The 1929 issue of their state highway map (below) suggested the same thing:
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c. 1929, VDoT
This photo was taken looking at the south end of VA hwy. 121 (the number for which came from historic US 121):
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Roberson, July 2006
That is the modern equivalent of the old junction; straight ahead on US 52 represents the historic north beginning of US 121...
...however, that segment of VA 121 and US 52 is relatively modern, built when I-81 came through.  The historic routing of US/VA 121 was just to the east (left) of there.  This photo was looking the same direction (south), but at the actual spot where US 121 would have begun:
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Roberson, Mar. 2008
That was the original alignment of VA 121.  It ends at the frontage road just ahead, which most likely was the original US 11.  Beyond the guardrail is I-81, but long before that was built, there was a brief period during which US 121 began straight ahead, right through where the commercial development in the background is situated now...

​...or rather, US 121 probably began straight ahead.  But there is still that remote possibility that it was dual-signed with US 11 to the west.  This image was looking northeast on Wytheville's Main Street, or US 11:
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Sweeney, Jan. 2020
Today, US 11 junctions US 21 two blocks behind the camera (at 4th Street).  However, during the 1930s, northbound US 21 traffic was directed to the left on the road shown in the photo above: Tazewell Street.  So that junction is where US 121 would have met its parent route.  In 1934, US 52 was extended southward along the entire path of US 121 (and beyond), rendering it obsolete.  70 years later, the number "121" was recycled for a different route.
Research and/or photo credits: Chris Curley; Nathan Edgars; Martin Karner; Don Leuchs; Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa; Collin Sweeney
Page originally created 2005;
last updated Aug. 16, 2023.