End of US highway 421

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; click here to view his site. Photo credits: Andy Field; Brian LeBlanc; Adam Prince

When it was commissioned in 1930, the south end of US 421 was in Greensboro NC, but already by the next year it had been extended to Wilmington (it ran along what had originally been US 17-1, so I've put a photo of the Wilmington endpoint on that page). It was in 1935 that the US 421 designation was extended a bit further south, to its current terminus in Fort Fisher NC:

Field, May 2005

This road literally ends right at the edge of the water; the photo below shows it in that context:

Field, May 2005

As of December 2005, the US 421 sign was missing. The frontside of the assembly at far left is shown in the photo below:

Field, May 2005

That's a slight "upgrade" from what was posted there a few years before:

LeBlanc/Prince, July 2000

Kudos to North Carolina for the great signage at the south end of this road! Steve Ford once emailed me regarding this page; below I've posted his comments about the Ft. Fisher endpoint:

"It is a glorious place to end, or begin, a highway, made only more so by the certainty that following the trail will take you, incongruously, through the Indiana outback to a terminus in Michigan City, of all places... not exactly dust to dust, but certainly sand to sand..."

Originally the north end of US 421 was in Boone NC - you can view photos from there on this page. In 1933 US 421 was extended "north" (actually west) to Cumberland Gap VA. That highway junction no longer exists - it became obsolete when the Cumberland Gap Tunnel was built. You can view photos and get more info on this page. In 1947, US 421 was truncated to Bristol, about 40 miles east of Cumberland Gap (you can view photos from there on this page). But that didn't last long - it was soon extended north into Kentucky. It may have ended at US 42 in Bedford for one year, but already by the next year (1951) it had been extended across the Ohio River into Indiana and all the way up to Michigan City (you can view photos from there on this page).