Embedded Files
100 years of US routes: 1926-2026
US route endpoints in
1927-1967
Bristol is a city straddling two states. The 1931 photo below was taken looking east on State Street, which runs along the boundary between Virginia and Tennessee, and thus also serves as the dividing line between the municipalities of Bristol VA and Bristol TN. Together these cities form an urban area referred to simply as "Bristol". This photo also shows shields for US 11E, US 19, and US 321 (at right):
(attribution unknown)
Historically, several three-digit US routes have ended in Bristol. Most of them were during the seminal years of the system, and none of them terminated in Bristol for long. In the beginning, US 411[i] came in from the west, meeting US 11 on the west edge of town (at the point where US 11W and 421 split now). But US 411 probably did not end there at its junction with US 11; at least one map shows US 11-411 overlapped into the downtown area. Meanwhile, US 511 (if Tennessee would have signed it) would have come in from the south on Pennsylvania Avenue, then turned west on State. At Front Street (more recently known as Randall Street, and today as Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.), northbound US 11 was to the north, while southbound was straight ahead on State. So US 511 would have ended there, and most likely that was also where US 411 began.
A 1929 Bristol map shows both US 411 and 511 ending at the same intersection as in 1927, but by then US 511 would have come in from a different direction: from the south via 6th Street, then Anderson, then 4th Street (later Edgemont Avenue, and now MLK Blvd), ending at State. Straight ahead on MLK was northbound US 11, while southbound was to the west (left) on State, as was the east beginning of US 411. So for the first few years of the US highway system, the intersection of State and MLK (Randall/Edgemont) was the main highway junction downtown. This photo was looking north on what is now MLK (TN 34) at State. In 1927, US 511 would have begun to the right, while US 411[I] began to the left:
Mooneyhan, Jul. 2006
In 1929, US 411 still began to the left, but that would have been the perspective of a driver at the north end of US 511. This photo was looking the opposite direction (south on MLK):
Elkins, Jul. 2008
Originally US 511 would have begun to the left on State, and US 411 began to the right. By 1929, US 511 would have begun straight ahead on Edgemont. Next is a shot of the signage that was posted heading that direction...
Elkins, Aug. 2005
...and here the view was to the west on State:
Mooneyhan, Jun. 2006
In 1927, that would have been the end of US 511, and US 411 began straight ahead. In 1929, the north beginning of US 511 would have been to the left on Edgemont. If a driver turned the opposite direction from that photo, the lighted archway shown in the photo at the top of this page is visible in the background of this shot:
Elkins, Jul. 2008
That was the end of US 411. Originally US 511 would have begun straight ahead, but a couple years later it would have begun to the right on MLK.
In about 1930, US 11 was changed such that it split into US 11E and US 11W in Bristol. By then, US 11-19 was using Piedmont Street from the north. At State, US 11W went west, while US 11E-19 went east. So State and Piedmont became the main junction. US 411[i] was probably truncated to that intersection. By that time, US 511 had been decommissioned, but US 321 came in on the same roads. It could have ended at its junction with US 11E-19 (on State at Edgemont/Randall, nee 4th), but it is more likely that it would have been overlapped along State, ending at Piedmont. This photo was taken looking south on Piedmont:
Elkins, Jul. 2008
State runs across the photo, and 7th continues ahead, between the two buildings. US 11W was to the right on State, and to the left was US 11E and US 19. Also to the left was probably the north beginning of US 321 (which replaced US 511), and later US 421 (which then replaced US 321). To the right on State was the beginning of US 411[i] after 1930, but that route was decommissioned in 1932 (subsumed by a westward extension of US 58). The 1935 main map shows US 321 renumbered as US 421, although the Bristol inset did not show the switch until 1936. The 1935 main map shows US 421 ending at Bristol; 1936 main map shows 421 extended to Cumberland Gap (so presumably 421 ended at the same place as 321, above). Later that intersection also marked the north end of US 411[iii]. This photo was taken looking west on State; at the time, this was the perspective of a driver at the terminus of US 411:
c. 1956 (linked to source)
(detail)
In about 1947, US 421 was truncated, such that it ended in Bristol again. But by this time, US 11E-19 had been rerouted along Commonwealth Avenue/Volunteer Parkway, so US 421 would have ended on Volunteer at State. This photo was looking south on Commonwealth (US 11E-19) at State:
Mooneyhan, Jun. 2006
Straight ahead the roadname changes to Volunteer, and that was the north beginning of US 421 during the late 1940s. The building at right is the Chamber; the signage posted there is shown close-up here:
Elkins, Jul. 2008
This photo shows a historic sign assembly that was once posted heading that direction:
Summa, 1995
That assembly was actually in Virginia, which was courteous enough to sign the route that began straight ahead, across the stateline. But by then, US 411 had been decommissioned in this area for about 20 years. This next shot was looking the opposite direction (north on Volunteer at State, where it becomes Commonwealth and VA hwy. 381):
Mooneyhan, Jun. 2006
That was the north endpoint of US 421 for a brief time. (Incidentally, by 2008 that blue sign had been replaced with a white one that says "Virginia Welcomes You".) Some maps as early as 1940 show US 411[iii] (that is, today's US 411) coming in from the south and ending in Bristol. Many of these maps indicate US 411 was a "proposed" or "new" designation. As it turned out, apparently US 411 was not actually signed into Bristol until about 1952. Whenever it happened, US 411 came in on 4th, then turned west on State, terminating at Piedmont. It was 1967 when the US routes in Bristol were changed to what they are now (that is, when the split of US 11 into 11E and 11W was moved to the intersection of Commonwealth and Euclid Avenue). However, by then it is possible that Tennessee was no longer signing US 411 all the way up to Bristol, so that designation may have never extended up to Euclid.
Research and/or image credits: H.B. Elkins; Adam Froehlig; Nicholas Mooneyhan; Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa
Page originally created 1999;last updated Sep. 06, 2025.
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