100 years of US routes: 1926-2026
The original US 117 was commissioned in 1926 to run from Virginia Beach to US 1 at Norlina. This was illustrated on AASHO's Nov. 1926 inaugural map:
However, AASHO's description of US 117 was one of the few errors in their inaugural route log of Apr. 1927. There, US 117 was described as heading south from VA Beach to Wilmington, even though that was actually the route of US 17:
In 1931 the east end of US 117 was truncated to Franklin, and one year later the designation was completely decommissioned (when it was replaced by US 158). That same year, a second US 117 was designated in North Carolina; that is the same US 117 that still exists today.
Research and/or image credits: Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa