State Route 578 (SR 578) was a short north–south

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 northwestern

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, a

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

. SR 578 ranked among the shortest state routes in the state, coming in at a length of just . Its southern terminus was at SR 65 in

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

, and its northern terminus was at what was then

U.S. Route 24 U.S. Route 24 (US 24) is one of the original United States highways of 1926. It originally ran from Pontiac, Michigan, in the east to Kansas City, Missouri, in the west. Today, the highway's eastern terminus is in Independence Township, Mic ...

(US 24), just across the

Maumee River The Maumee River (pronounced ) ( sjw, Hotaawathiipi; mia, Taawaawa siipiiwi) is a river running in the United States Midwest from northeastern Indiana into northwestern Ohio and Lake Erie. It is formed at the confluence of the St. Joseph and ...

and the

Wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

Lucas Lucas or LUCAS may refer to: People * Lucas (surname) * Lucas (given name) Arts and entertainment * Luca Family Singers, also known as "lucas ligner en torsk" * ''Lucas'' (album) (2007), an album by Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities * ''L ...

county line from Grand Rapids. After SR 295 was extended from its southern terminus along the Maumee River and the former route of US 24, it took over all of SR 578 in 2012 thereby deleting the SR 578 designation.

Route description

Although a route of less than in length, SR 578 did pass through two counties: Wood and Lucas. The highway was not included within the National Highway System. No sooner than starting from the intersection of SR 65 and Bridge Street in Grand Rapids, SR 578 crossed the Maumee River via a two-lane, four-span steel bridge. North of the bridge, SR 578 met a pair of driveways (one on either side of the roadway), crossed over a very narrow waterway parallel to the Maumee River, and promptly arrived at its endpoint at the former US 24.

History

SR 578 was designated in 1937 as a route that was much longer than the short connector that is serves as today. Starting from the Henry County intersection of what is now SR 108 (then known as SR 33) and County Road L approximately south of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

, SR 578 followed what is now County Road L east, passing an intersection with SR 109 and straddling the northern village limits of Malinta. Continuing east, SR 578 continued eastward along County Road L, crossing SR 65 and proceeded to Township Road 1C, which the state route then followed northeasterly to the County Road M intersection, and turned east. Heading into Wood County, the route followed Sand Ridge Road to Wapakoneta Road (County Road 189), then turned north, and followed Wapakoneta Road past an intersection with US 6 and into Grand Rapids. There, SR 578 ended at what was is now just SR 65, but was then a concurrency between SR 65 and US 24. US 24 then crossed over the Maumee River where SR 578 existed for most of its history. In 1942, US 24 was re-routed onto the north side of the Maumee River heading northeast from Napoleon. SR 578 was then extended into Lucas County to meet US 24 on the north side of the Maumee River across from Grand Rapids, via the bridge that formerly carried US 24 across the river there. One year later, however, SR 578 was shortened greatly, when jurisdiction of the route between SR 108 south of Napoleon and SR 65 in Grand Rapids was yielded to Henry and Wood Counties. Since then, SR 578 had simply been the short route across the Maumee River connecting SR 65 with US 24. In August 2012 when US 24 was rerouted, SR 295 was extended to run along part of the former US 24's alignment until Grand Rapids, where SR 295 then replaced SR 578.
Wood CountyLucas County
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Major intersections

References

External links

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578 __NOTOC__ Year 578 ( DLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 578 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...

Transportation in Wood County, Ohio Transportation in Lucas County, Ohio