End of historic US highway 121

Note: since I don't have access to a comprehensive collection of historical road atlases, much of the info on this page is based on the research of Robert Droz and Mike Roberson. Photo credits: Chris Curley; Mike Roberson

US 121 [I] was an original 1926 route; its south end was at US 70 in Lexington NC. The photo below is looking east on Main Street:

Google Maps Street View, 2008

Originally that was US 70, and the south beginning of US 121 was to the left on 6th Street.

On its north, US 121 went at least as far as US 11 at Ft. Chiswell VA. However, since its number implies a branch of US 21, it may have been co-signed with US 11 a few miles to the west, in order to junction with US 21 in Wytheville. Mike tells me he's seen one map that shows the two routes duplexed between Ft. Chiswell and Wytheville. But other maps do not show this duplex, and VDoT route logs from the timeframe indicate that US 121 ended at Ft. Chiswell without ever meeting its implied parent route.

The photo below was taken looking at the south end of VA hwy. 121 (the number for which came from historic US 121):

Roberson, July 2006

This is the modern equivalent of the old junction; straight ahead on US 52 represents the historic north beginning of US 121. However, this segment of VA 121 and US 52 is relatively modern, built when I-81 came through. The historic routing of US/VA 121 was just to the east (left) of here. The photo below is looking the same direction (south), but at the actual spot where US 121 would've begun:

Roberson, Mar. 2008

That's the original alignment of VA 121. It ends at the frontage road just ahead, which most likely was the original US 11. Beyond the guardrail is I-81, but long before that was built, there was a brief period during which US 121 began straight ahead, right through where the commercial development in the background is situated now...

...or rather, US 121 probably began straight ahead. But there's still that remote possibility that it was co-signed with US 11 to the west. The photo below was taken looking southwest on Wytheville's Main Street, or US 11:

Google Maps Street View, 2008

Today, US 11 junctions with US 21 one block ahead (at 4th Street). However, during the 1930s, northbound US 21 traffic was directed to the right on the road shown in the photo above: Tazewell Street. So this junction is where US 121 would've met its parent route.

In 1934, US 52 was extended southward along the entire path of US 121 (and beyond), rendering it obsolete. 70 years later, the number was recycled for a different route; you can read about the endpoints of modern US 121 on this page.