State Route 72 (SR 72) 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 southwest part of the
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 ...
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 ...
. It runs from
SR 71 in
Gate City north to
SR 65 at
Fort Blackmore, northeast with SR 65 to
Dungannon
Dungannon () is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 14,340 at the 2011 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council had its headquarters in the ...
, and north via
Coeburn to
SR 83 near
Clintwood.
Route description
SR 72 begins at SR 71 in
Slabtown, east of downtown Gate City. The intersection of the two routes lies on the town limits of Gate City. It heads north across the
Moccasin Ridge via some small creek valleys and crosses
Copper Creek at
Williams Mill. SR 72 continues north across
Copper Ridge and into the
Clinch River
The Clinch River is a river that flows southwest for more than through the Great Appalachian Valley in the U.S. states of Virginia and Tennessee, gathering various tributaries, including the Powell River, before joining the Tennessee River in Ki ...
valley, where it meets SR 65. SR 65 and SR 72
overlap
Overlap may refer to:
* In set theory, an overlap of elements shared between sets is called an intersection, as in a Venn diagram.
* In music theory, overlap is a synonym for reinterpretation of a chord at the boundary of two musical phrases
* Ove ...
, paralleling the Clinch River to Dungannon. After the two routes split, SR 72 continues to follow the river to the northeast, but then splits in order to cross
Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome Inselberg, monadnock and the site of Stone Mountain Park, east of Atlanta, Georgia. Outside the park is the small city of Stone Mountain, Georgia. The park is the most visited tourist site in the state o ...
.
The land flattens out near the
Scott–
Wise county line, and SR 72 continues northwest and north across the
Guest River
The Guest River is a short tributary of the Clinch River in southwestern Virginia in the United States. It is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River by way of the Clinch, Tennessee and Ohio Rivers. According to the Geographic Names Inf ...
and past
Maytown to an interchange with
U.S. Route 58 Alternate
U.S. Route 58 Alternate (US 58 Alt.) is a alternate route to US 58 in western Virginia. The route is a northern bypass to US 58 which stays closer to the Tennessee border and serves Gate City and Bristol.
Route description Jonesville to Norto ...
within the town limits of Coeburn. Signage in Coeburn directs through traffic on SR 72 to use US 58 Alt. to Front and Second Streets west of downtown Coeburn rather than using the official route on Front Street. Just past the interchange, SR 72 reaches
SR 158 at a signalized intersection. SR 72 turns west with SR 158, formerly US 58 Alt. until a bypass around Coeburn was built, and then splits to the north. It runs alongside small creeks, passing
Bondtown and
Cranes Nest on its way to
Fuller Gap, where it crosses
Guest Mountain and the
Tennessee Valley Divide
The Tennessee Valley Divide is the boundary of the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and its tributaries.
The Tennessee River drainage basin begins with its tributaries in southwestern Virginia and flows generally west to the confluence of t ...
. It then descends through small creek valleys and alongside the
Cranes Nest River
The Cranes Nest River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 13, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located in Dickenson County, Virginia, Dickenson County ...
to the
Dickenson County line.
[
SR 72 continues along the Cranes Nest River, but splits to cross a small ridge at Hibbitts Gap. Then it continues northerly alongside small creeks, past Darwin to its end at SR 83 at Georges Fork, west of Clintwood.][
]
History
The road from Coeburn north to Clintwood was part of the original state highway system designated in 1918, as a spur of SR 11 (now US 58 Alt.). In the 1923 renumbering it became part of SR 114, which continued east from Clintwood to Haysi. The piece south of Clintwood was renumbered SR 122 in the 1928 renumbering, and that same year it was extended south from Clintwood to Dungannon and southeast to end at SR 107 (now SR 71). SR 122 was renumbered SR 72 in the 1933 renumbering. In 1949, the section south of Dungannon was transferred to the secondary system as SR 774, due to its "local character and very low traffic volume" of 187 per day. (SR 774 now carries about 360 vehicles per day.
Major intersections
References
External links
Virginia Highways Project: VA 72
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