Endpoints of
US Route 501

Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 383 miles for US 501... however, that included the mileage of US 501's associated business/alternate routes.  According to the state subtotals on AASHTO's 1989 spreadsheet, mainline US 501's actual end-to-end total at the time was 355 miles.  That closely matches our own 2020 measurement, which yielded 353.6 miles.  Want historic mileages?  Our handy reference book includes the mileages that were published in all 13 of AASHO/AASHTO's historic route logs (spanning the years 1927 to 1989).

US 501 ended at its junction with US 60 (which was later replaced by US 460).  In this photo, we are looking north on VA hwy. 621, which was formerly US 501:

​After crossing under the railroad, that junctions VA 716, or Namozine Street, which originally carried US 60 (and later US 460, before the current US 360-460 interchange was built).  This perspective was looking west on Namozine, or historic westbound US 60:

...but US 501 was also rerouted as a part of this change.  From Halifax, US 501 was directed up to Lynchburg, where it then followed former US 60 up to Buena Vista.  The segment northwest from Buena Vista to Lexington remained US 60, so there was no reason not to terminate US 501 in Buena Vista, and that is what is shown on every map I have ever seen.  In fact, Virginia's official 1933 map explicitly shows US 501 ending in Buena Vista, with SH 501 continuing northwest from there with US 60 to Lexington before splitting off to the north on its own:

...but by the time US 501 was truncated to Buena Vista, US 60 had been changed to its current configuration along 29th Street, so US 501 ended at the same location it does today: on Beech at 29th: