End of US highway 211 |
1926-1929
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1929-1945?
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1945?-1980
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1980-present
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Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 69 miles for US 211... however, that included the mileage of US 211's associated business routes. According to the state subtotals on AASHTO's 1989 spreadsheet, mainline US 211's actual end-to-end total at the time was 61 miles. That closely matches our own 2020 measurement, which yielded 59.0 miles (reroutings and realignments likely explain the difference). Historically, when it went to DC, US 211 was about 101 miles long.
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Straight ahead on Old Cross was the original beginning of US 211, from 1927 until 1951, when Lee Highway was built to bypass the eastern segment of Old Cross:
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Now US 211 continues to the north (left) on Congress Street, and soon reaches the intersection marking its next historic beginning:
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Now we will head back the opposite direction; this photo was looking east on US 211:
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When that alignment of Lee Hwy was opened, that became US 211's endpoint, at its junction with US 11. Next is another view of that junction, approaching from the north:
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Originally US 211 ended there, at its junction with US 11. That lasted until 1951, when US 211 was rerouted to its current alignment. And since 1964, US 211 continues straight ahead, ending at the I-81 interchange. Straight ahead is VA hwy. 211, but that has never been part of US 211:
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From New Market, it is only about 60 miles to US 211's current western terminus at Warrenton. However, until 1980, US 211 went beyond Warrenton for perhaps another 60 miles:
Surprisingly few US routes defy the "number-direction parity" concept. US 211 is one of the exceptions: it runs east/west, and is signed east/west, but it was numbered as a north/south branch route. Originally the east end was at its junction with US 50 in Fairfax, so a better designation would have been US x50. This photo was looking west on Fairfax Boulevard:
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That is westbound US 50, which continues to the right on Main Street. That is also southbound US 29, which continues straight ahead. But before US 29 was extended through this area, straight ahead was the east beginning of US 211. This shot was looking the opposite direction. Today US 29 continues straight ahead, but historically this was the end of US 211, where it junctioned with US 50:
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That was in Rosslyn (a neighborhood of Arlington), looking north on Lynn Street, which today carries northbound US 29. In the middleground is the foot of the Key Bridge, which continues off to the right; for a time US 211 ended there. (Part of Georgetown University is visible on the far side of the Potomac.)
In 1934, US 29 was extended northward to Warrenton, and from there it overlapped with US 211 through Arlington (and then beyond, on its own). So US 211 could have been truncated to Warrenton as early as 1934, but perhaps since it was the first route to serve that corridor, it remained on that segment. It was not until nearly 50 years later (1980) that US 211 was truncated to its current east terminus in Warrenton. These photos show the odd place where the "End" sign was posted (looking east on Lee Highway at the Blackwell Road intersection):
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Downtown Warrenton is about a mile to the right (there was also a nearly identical assembly posted about a block before that point). The green signs in the distance give directions at the interchange with the US 15-17-29 bypass. So why does the US 211 designation end there, instead of extending to that junction? It is quite uncommon for a main route to end at a business route. This next series begins from southbound US 15-29. US 211 should start here...
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...but it does not; instead that exit is signed "TO US 211". Drivers exiting there will encounter the assembly shown here as they approach the junction with Blackwell:
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The east beginning of US 211 is at the same intersection as the east beginning of its own business route. Continuing past that traffic signal, the sign below is posted...
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...but notice the assembly in the distance, shown close-up here. Seems like this would have been posted closer to Blackwell. And the "Begin" sign itself is pretty unusual as well:
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Research and/or photo credits: Chris Elbert; Martin Karner; Alex Nitzman; Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson; Dave Strong; Michael Summa; Kel Utendorf
Page originally created 2000;
last updated Nov. 26, 2021.
last updated Nov. 26, 2021.