U.S. Route 321

U.S. Route 321 is a spur of U.S. Route 21. It runs for 516.9 miles (831.9 km) from South Carolina to Tennessee. With its northern terminus located in Elizabethton, Tennessee, it has two southern terminus at Hardeeville, South Carolina and Lenoir City, Tennessee. The highway serves different roles in each state: An alternate route to interstates in South Carolina, a major highway in North Carolina, and a scenic route in Tennessee.

Because of its unusual "north–south–north" routing, U.S. Route 321 intersects both Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 70 three separate times.

Route description

South Carolina

U.S. 321 provides direct access between Savannah and Columbia, serving as an alternate to Interstate 95 and Interstate 26. Starting in Hardeeville, U.S. 321 as a mostly 2 lane highway goes through sparsely populated areas and small towns including Estill, Fairfax, and Denmark, heading in a rather straight and northward direction into the Columbia area, widening to a 5 lane highway right after Neeses, then narrowing down to a 2 lane highway right after the town of North and widening to a 5 lane highway again after Swansea and staying that way until it merges with its parent route U.S. 21 in Dixiana. In Columbia, the route stays concurrent with U.S. 21 through Cayce, over the Congaree River on the Blossom Street Bridge, turning left onto Huger Street, right onto Elmwood Avenue, and left onto North Main Street. The roads separate at Hyatt Park, with U.S. 321 staying west of Interstate 77 and U.S. 21 north of Columbia. The route goes through to communities of Winnsboro, Chester, York, and Clover before entering North Carolina at Bowling Green.

U.S. Route 421 in Virginia

U.S. Route 421 (US 421) is a part of the U.S. Highway System that runs from Fort Fisher, North Carolina to Michigan City, Indiana. In Virginia, the U.S. Highway runs 69.23 miles (111.41 km) from the Tennessee state line between the twin cities of Bristol, Tennessee and Bristol, Virginia north and west to the Kentucky state line near St. Charles. Between its endpoints, US 421 has lengthy concurrencies with US 23 and US 58 during its course through Bristol, Weber City, Gate City, Duffield, and Pennington Gap in Southwest Virginia.

Route description

US 421 enters Virginia at State Street, which follows the boundary between Bristol, Virginia, and Bristol, Tennessee, and heads north on Commonwealth Avenue, which also carries US 11E, US 19, and SR 381. Prior to spring 2011, US 421 followed a more convoluted routing on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Cumberland Street, Piedmont Avenue, and Goode Street (all but MLK also being U.S. Route 11-19 Truck).