End of US highway 360 |
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Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 235 miles for US 360... however, that included the mileage of US 360's associated business routes. According to the state subtotals on AASHTO's 1989 spreadsheet, mainline US 360's actual end-to-end total at the time was 223 miles. That closely matches our own 2020 measurement, which yielded 225.3 miles (reroutings and realignments likely explain the difference).
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The west end of US 360 has been at the same intersection in Danville since it was commissioned in 1933. This photo was looking northwest on River Street:
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Karner, May 2013
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Up to that intersection, US 360 is overlapped with Business 58. The 360 designation ends there, while Bus. 58 continues ahead on Riverside Drive. The crossroad (Main Street) is now VA highway 293, but was once US 29, explaining why US 360 originally ended at that particular junction. This shot was from southwestbound Main Street:
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Karner, May 2013 (unchanged since at least 2006)
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US 360 begins to the left. This photo was looking the opposite direction; we have just crossed the Dan River on Main:
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Storey, 2001
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That assembly indicates both the west beginning of US 360 (to the right), and the west beginning of VA 360 (straight ahead). That highway is actually the original US 360: it curves back east, and ends at modern US 360 near South Boston. (Note that photo was taken before the US 58 bypass was built, so the crossroad was still mainline US 58, instead of Business 58.) One more perspective:
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Karner, May 2013
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That was looking southeast on Riverside (Bus. 58); US 360 begins straight ahead. But in the opinion of several highway enthusiasts, the US 360 designation should be removed from the approximately-2-mile segment of Bus. 58 between there and the Danville Expressway (mainline US 58). Instead, US 360 should be extended west with the US 58 bypass to where the expressway ends at the Martinsville Highway. Then US 360 should loop around and subsume US 311, continuing southwestward all the way to Winston-Salem NC (see the US 311 page for more detail).
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Until 1954, US 360 continued ahead, all the way to the south end of Main Street:
Sanderson, Oct. 1999
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At the time of that photo, that was actually the end of VA 644 (not US 360). This shot was taken looking the opposite direction:
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Roberson, Feb. 2007
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Today that is the beginning of VA 644, but historically that was the beginning of US 360. About a mile ahead, one reaches the current beginning of US 360, where VA 644 makes a sharp turn:
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Roberson, Feb. 2007
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At far left is visible the backside of the assembly shown in the first Reedville photo above. Not far ahead is the first westbound confirming marker:
Roberson, Feb. 2007
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O'Reilly, Jun. 2021
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It is a bit unusual that a town beyond Richmond would merit a reference on that sign... particularly a town like Burkeville, with a population of only 500.
Research and/or photo credits: James Britton; Martin Karner; Charlie O'Reilly; Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson; Jimmy Storey; Michael Summa
Page originally created 1999;
last updated Nov. 28, 2021.
last updated Nov. 28, 2021.
