State Route 122 (SR 122) is a primary

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 U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. The state highway runs from SR 40 in Rocky Mount north to

U.S. Route 501 U.S. Route 501 (US 501) is a spur of U.S. Route 1. It runs 355 miles (571 km) from Buena Vista, Virginia at U.S. Route 60 to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at U.S. Route 17 Business. It passes through the states of Virginia, North Carolina a ...

(US 501) in Big Island. SR 122 passes through the Blue Ridge foothills of

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

and

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

, connecting Rocky Mount with the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

. The state highway provides access to

Booker T. Washington National Monument The Booker T. Washington National Monument is a National Monument near the community of Hardy, Virginia, and is located entirely in rural Franklin County, Virginia. It preserves portions of the 207-acre (0.90 km2) tobacco farm on which educ ...

and

Smith Mountain Lake Smith Mountain Lake is a large reservoir in the Roanoke Region of Virginia, United States, located southeast of the City of Roanoke and southwest of Lynchburg. The lake was created in 1963 by the Smith Mountain Dam impounding the Roanoke River. ...

, and the

National D-Day Memorial The National D-Day Memorial is a war memorial located in Bedford, Virginia. It serves as the national memorial for American D-Day veterans. However, its scope is international in that it states, "In Tribute to the valor, fidelity and sacrifice of ...

via its Bedford business route.

Route description

SR 122 begins at an intersection with SR 40 (Old Franklin Turnpike) on the east side of the town of Rocky Mount, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Franklin County. The state highway heads northeast as two-lane undivided Booker T. Washington Highway. SR 122 crosses the Blackwater River, a tributary of the Roanoke River, and the former river's tributary, Maggodee Creek, before meeting the southern end of SR 116 (Jubal Early Highway) at Burnt Chimney. The state highway continues east by Booker T. Washington National Monument, which preserves the birthplace of

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

. SR 122 passes through the community of Westlake Corner, a commercial center for the western side of Smith Mountain Lake, before crossing the lake and entering Bedford County. The state highway continues north as Moneta Road through the village of

Moneta In Roman mythology, Moneta (Latin Monēta) was a title given to two separate goddesses: It was the name of the goddess of memory (identified with the Greek goddess Mnemosyne), and it was an epithet of Juno, called Juno Moneta (Latin Iūno Monēt ...

, where the highway crosses over

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

Altavista District AltaVista was a Web search engine established in 1995. It became one of the most-used early search engines, but lost ground to Google and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, which retained the brand, but based all AltaVista searches on its own sear ...

. SR 122 crosses Goose Creek and intersects

SR 24 Route 24, or Highway 24, can refer to: International * European route E24 Australia * Lyell Highway (Tasmania) * Central Arnhem Road, NT Austria * Verbindungsspange Rothneusiedel Canada * Alberta Highway 24 * British Columbia Highway 24 * M ...

west of Body Camp; SR 24 heads west as Stewartsville Road toward Stewartsville and east as Shingle Block Road. SR 122 continues north to the town of Bedford, where the highway's name changes to Burks Hill Road. At the highway's

diamond interchange A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road. Design The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...

with the Bedford Bypass, the road continues toward downtown Bedford as SR 122 Business while SR 122 joins US 460 and US 221 on the four-lane

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

bypass. The three highways head east to a diamond interchange at the east end of the four-lane

divided Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the ways that numbers are combined to make new numbers. The other operations are addition, subtraction, and multiplication. At an elementary level the division of two natural numb ...

bypass. US 460 continues east as Lynchburg Salem Turnpike toward Lynchburg while SR 122, US 221, and US 460 Business follow Main Street west for one block. There, US 460 Business continues toward downtown Bedford while SR 122 and US 221 turn north onto two-lane undivided Independence Boulevard, an eastern bypass of Bedford that crosses over Norfolk Southern's

Blue Ridge District The AA Blue Ridge District is a district in the Region III of the Virginia High School League. The district is centered around the Roanoke Valley in Southwest Virginia and is named for the Blue Ridge Mountains, which feature prominently in the reg ...

rail line. SR 122 and US 221 diverge at the northern end of Independence Boulevard, where the highways meet the northern end of SR 122 Business (Longwood Avenue). US 221 heads east on Forest Road toward

Forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

while SR 122 heads north on Longwood Avenue out of the town of Bedford. SR 122 continues north as Big Island Highway through the hamlet of Centerville, which contains the historic home Otterburn, and over the

Big Otter River The Big Otter River is a river in the United States state of Virginia. See also *List of rivers of Virginia This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of Virginia. By drainage basin This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective trib ...

. The state highway passes between Suck Mountain and Hurricane Mountain before reaching its northern terminus at US 501 (Lee Jackson Highway) just north of the village of Big Island on the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

Major intersections

Bedford business route

Virginia State Route 122 Business (SR 122 Business) is a business route of SR 122 within the town of Bedford. The highway runs from SR 122, US 221, and US 460 on the south side of Bedford to SR 122 and US 221 on the north side of Bedford. SR 122 Business heads north from its diamond interchange with the Bedford Bypass as Burks Hill Road. Just north of the interchange, the highway passes the entrance to the Bedford Welcome Center and the National D-Day Memorial. At King Street, the highway's name changes to Crenshaw Street, which the business route follows to US 460 Business (Main Street). SR 122 turns east onto Main Street, which the highway follows for two blocks, passing the Bedford Historic Meetinghouse. The business route turns north onto Bridge Street, where the highway leaves its concurrency with US 460 Business and joins SR 43 to cross over Norfolk Southern Railway's Blue Ridge District. When SR 43 heads northwest as Peaks Street toward the

Peaks of Otter The Peaks of Otter are three mountain peaks in the Blue Ridge Mountains, overlooking the town of Bedford, Virginia, which lies nine miles (14 km) to the southeast along State Route 43. These peaks are Sharp Top, Flat Top, and Harkening Hill ...

, SR 122 Business heads northeast along Longwood Avenue to its northern terminus at US 221 (Forest Road) and SR 122, which heads south with US 221 on Independence Boulevard and north as Longwood Avenue.

References

External links

Virginia Highways Project: VA 122
{{end box 122 State Route 122 State Route 122 State Route 122