Skip to main content

NC 172's long-ago partner in crime

By
One of the interesting things about North Carolina is, almost to a T, any intersection at a very small angle (10 degrees or so) almost always indicates an old alignment of a roadway. I've noticed that NC 133 has one of these intersections just south of a bridge and a sharp curve about halfway between Leland and Southport, and assumed that the roadway used to continue straight ahead. So I decided to trace a route along this roadway, now called Plantation Road after the Orton Plantation located nearby, and lo and behold...

First, here is the intersection of 133 and Plantation. Notice how it's almost straight on with the northern stretch of 133 from the intersection, even though Plantation itself curves to the left to meet 133.

Follow Plantation south, and eventually you cross into land occupied by Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal. Keep going south, and switch over to the Satellite view after the mapped road ends, and you'll come to this point where the road seems to be closed but there's obviously an old roadbed in place, and while there's no bridge over the small creek it's obvious that one existed at some point. After the second waterway (which is an intake canal for the nuclear plant that would have been built well after this road was abandoned), another road picks up, and this one eventually becomes NC 211 near the Southport ferry dock, running straight into downtown Southport.

So at some point, the road from Leland to Southport ran through what's now Sunny Point, and was probably relocated in the late '40s when Sunny Point was being built. It was never NC 133 because that numbering didn't come along until the late '50s, but it could have been the original routing of NC 130 before it was renumbered to NC 40 -- right around 1950, that stretch was given a number for the first time, and it existed unnumbered before then.

With all the military bases in eastern North Carolina, I'm sure this road isn't the only one that was necessarily rerouted to avoid a base. (NC 172, obviously, wasn't rerouted per se, but it was closed as a through route through Camp Lejeune.) Are there any other roads that were rerouted around a base?
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
NC-111 was rerouted when Seymour Johnson AFB was built. If you look at it on Google maps it's pretty clear that "Old NC-111" used to connect to Slocumb Street, which intersects with Ash Street (which at the time would have been US-70 and today is US-70 Business).
9:41 PM
Mapmikey said…
The 1930 Brunswick County Map supports the pre-NC 133 routing through Sunny Point

NC 111 has been rerouted twice for the AFB. See the map shown at http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Goldsboro,+NC&ie=UTF8&ll=35.341035,-77.944393&spn=0.04936,0.084715&z=14&om=1
which shows two different older NC 111 routings...one onto Slocumb St, and another using Piedmont Airlane Rd to meet 70 business...
11:39 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grand Loop Road of Yellowstone National Park

By
  Grand Loop Road is a 140 mile loop highway which traverses the interior of Yellowstone National Park.  Grand Loop Road connects all of the major attractions and geological features of Yellowstone National Park along with the entrance roads.  Grand Loop Road is a seasonal highway and despite some conjecture never has been part of the US Route System.   Part 1; the history of Grand Loop Road The majority of history pertaining to Grand Loop Road was taken from the below National Park Service article: Historic Roads - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) Yellowstone was declared the first National Park of the United States on March 1st, 1872.  The first real highway to access Yellowstone National Park came in 1873 when a tolled facility was constructed from Bozeman, Montana via Yankee Jim Canyon to Mammoth Hot Springs.  Numerous attempts were made to fund construction of roadway infrastructure during the early years of Yellows...
Post a Comment
Read more

The last 1956-63 era California Sign State Route Spade?

By
Along southbound California State Route 170 (the Hollywood Freeway Extension) approaching the Hollywood Freeway/Ventura Freeway interchange a white California State Route 134 Sign State Route Spade can be observed on guide sign.  These white spades were specifically used during the 1956-63 era and have become increasingly rare.  This blog is intended to serve as a brief history of the Sign State Route Spade.  We also ask you as the reader, is this last 1956-63 era Sign State Route Spade or do you know of others?  Part 1; the history of the California Sign State Route Spade Prior to the Sign State Route System, the US Route System and the Auto Trails were the only highways in California signed with reassurance markers.  The creation of the US Route System by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926 brought a system of standardized reassurance shields to major highways in California.  Early efforts to create a Sign State Route ...
Post a Comment
Read more

California State Route 70; the Feather River Highway

By
From 2017 through to early 2019 I drove the majority of the California State Route 70; the Feather River Highway from CA 89 southwest to CA 99. CA 70 is an approximately 178.5 mile state highway which starts at US 395 near the Nevada State Line and travels west through the Feather River Canyon to CA 99.  CA 70 is often referred to as the Feather River Highway" given it's close association with the river.  Historically CA 70 was previously signed as US 40A and CA 24.  The Legislative Routes prior to the 1964 California Highway Renumbering that made up the current route of CA 70 are as follows: -  Legislative Route Number 21 from US 395 westward to Oroville. -  LRN 87 from Oroville south to Marysville. -  LRN 232 from Marysville to the current junction with CA 99.  CA 70 was even dual signed with CA 99 into Sacramento on what was LRN 232 for a time. The change from US 40A/LRN 21/LRN 87/LRN 232 can be seen by comparing the 1963 State Highway Ma...
Post a Comment
Read more