State Route 369 (SR 369) is a west-to-east

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the northern part of the

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Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. It travels from its intersection with SR 20 near the community of Macedonia in eastern

Cherokee County Cherokee County is the name of eight counties in the United States: * Cherokee County, Alabama * Cherokee County, Georgia * Cherokee County, Iowa * Cherokee County, Kansas * Cherokee County, North Carolina * Cherokee County, Oklahoma * Cherokee Co ...

, through northern Forsyth County, bisecting the county, to its eastern terminus in the northeastern part of Gainesville in Hall County.

Route description

Georgia State Route 369, Cherokee County, Jan 2017

SR 369 begins at an intersection with SR 20 (Canton Highway) near the community of Macedonia in eastern

, and travels in a loop to the east, through

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

and generally

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

(though becoming somewhat

exurb An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing density, and growth. It s ...

an) areas of

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

and

Forsyth Forsyth may refer to: Places Oceania * Forsyth Island, Queensland, Australia, one of the West Wellesley Islands (aka Forsyth Islands) * Forsyth Island, Tasmania, Australia * Forsyth Island (New Zealand), in the outer Marlborough Sounds of South I ...

counties. This includes Matt, for which the road is named Matt Highway west of SR 9 (

Dahlonega The city of Dahlonega () is the county seat of Lumpkin County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,242, and in 2018 the population was estimated to be 6,884. Dahlonega is located at the north end of ...

Highway), while running southeast from Matt to Coal Mountain. The intersection of SR 369 and US 19/ SR 400 is just north of the end of the

limited-access A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, limited access freeway, and partial controlled access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which ...

portion of US 19/SR 400 at exit 17. East of US 19/SR 400, now locally known as Browns Bridge Road, SR 369 crosses the northern branches of

Lake Lanier Lake Lanier (officially Lake Sidney Lanier) is a reservoir in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956, and is also fed by the waters of the Chestatee Ri ...

in Forsyth County, before crossing the main channel (originally the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...

) of the lake via Browns Bridge into Hall County. The route then becomes Jesse Jewell Parkway once it reaches SR 13 in Gainesville, and forms a major

thoroughfare A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way as a transit route through regularly trafficked areas, whether by road on dry land or, by extension, via watercraft or aircraft. On land, a thoroughfare may refer to anything from a multi-lane highwa ...

in Gainesville, before it reaches its eastern terminus at I-985/ US 23. The Georgia Department of Transportation

average annual daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a ...

(AADT) numbers for the year 2011 show an average of about 5,600 vehicles per day between the route's western terminus and Old Federal Road in Forsyth County, with the exception of an average vehicle load of 9,960 on a short stretch of the route around Yellow Creek Road, which is a south-to-north feeder route to the Big Canoe residential development in Pickens County. SR 369's vehicle load continues to increase as it travels to the east, going from 6,470 west of Matt to just over 11,000 east of Matt to SR 9. The average vehicle count then fluctuates from 16,340 between SR 9 and SR 400 to just 7,400 east of SR 400 to SR 306, peaks at 21,430 east of SR 306 to the Hall County line, and then holds at around 12,000 as the route loops around Lake Lanier. Once SR 369 reaches the Gainesville area, the vehicle loads increases greatly to around 27,000 between SR 53 and SR 13, with a peak of 36,750 in downtown Gainesville.

History

The roadway signed today as SR 369 makes its first appearance on Georgia state highway maps in 1940, when the section of the route between SR 9 (concurrent with US 19 at the time) and Gainesville is shown as unimproved but maintained. This road was signed as SR 141. By early in 1944, the Hall County portion of the road had been improved to feature hard surface. It was 1957 before the entirety of that stretch of the route had been covered by hard surface. By 1953, a

U-shaped Many shapes have metaphorical names, i.e., their names are metaphors: these shapes are named after a most common object that has it. For example, "U-shape" is a shape that resembles the letter U, a bell-shaped curve has the shape of the vertical ...

paved connecting road is shown traveling north for about , and then east for another from SR 20 to SR 9, which then continues as SR 141. This routing appears to correspond to portions of today's Hurt Bridge Road from SR 20 north to Holbrook Road, and a portion of roadway curving northeast to just west of Matt, which does not appear to exist today. By 1966, the west-to-east portion of this connecting road had been extended another further west, and was by then signed as SR 141, but did not yet connect to SR 20. This extension appears to travel to what is today called Heardsville Road, which travels south-to-north from SR 20 through the communities of Ducktown and Heardsville to intersect with today's SR 369. Sometime in 1970, the route as it exists today was not only completed and extended to its intersection with SR 20 near Macedonia, but was also signed as SR 369.

Major intersections

Connector route

State Route 369 Connector (SR 369 Connector) was a

connector route A connector is a highway or freeway road that connects to another highway or freeway. It can be part of an interchange such as the MacArthur Maze or a longer roadway such as the Interstate 635. A connector route is a type of special route or su ...

that traveled south-to-north from the SR 369 mainline in Matt to SR 9 in Silver City, completely within Forsyth County. It was known locally as Bannister Road. It was decommissioned in 1986.

References

External links