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presents

The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

WV 4 and US 19

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Highway	Start	Terminus	Length (km)
US 19	Raleigh County line near Flat Top	Tazewell County, Virginia state line, Bluefield	59 (62 for pre-1930s alignment)

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Overview

US Route 19 is an original United States numbered road from the AASHO's 11 November 1926 interstate numbering plan. Like the vast majority of U.S. numbered highways, Route 19 has a lengthy trajectory that cuts across several states. Its northern terminus is in Erie, Pennsylvania, a hop, skip, and jump from the Lake Ontario shore. Its south end is in Memphis, Florida, just south of Tampa. Needless to say, it's a route that's popular with Canadian snowbirds.

West Virginia's state highway system preceded the AASHO's U.S. highway system by four years, and the future course of US 19 was briefly, fleetingly signed in the 1920s as WV 4. Until the latter highway was truncated north of Bluefield in 1976, US 19 followed a concurrency with US 21 for the vast majority of its distance in Mercer County.

Given that US 19 has existed as a highway for more than 90 years and is paralleled by Interstates for much of its distance, it's almost incredible how stable its routing has been. The stretch between Princeton and Bluefield is an exception to the rule, however. Its course has changed three times: Once in 1933 to straighten the course of the highway and move it off of an interurban trolley right-of-way, once in 1977 when its concurrency with US 460 was expanded to a four-lane divided arrangement, and once more in 1997 when a notoriously treacherous curve on Corridor Q was bypassed by a rock cut.

The original 1920s course of WV 4 and US 19 south of Princeton was redesignated CR 25 in 1933. Today its segments are variously numbered CR 19/29, CR 19/33, WV 123, or CR 25, and signed for much of the distance as "Old Bluefield Road". The bypassed pieces of the 1930s alignment are more scattered, being dispersed among CR 19/49, 460/23, 460/24, 19/54, 19/33, and WV 112.

Prehistory

The majority of West Virginia's original 1922 highway system was routed atop pre-existing infrastructure, and WV 4 was no exception. Most of the roads making up its alignment north of Princeton were already in place by 1887. South of Princeton, things were more scattered: Some segments of the future 4 and 19 were in place by 1895, but they were not graded or connected into a coherent road until the interurban rail line opened astride it in 1916. The 1930s realignment consisted overwhelmingly of new construction, although some portions immediately south of Princeton were again built up over pre-existing roads.

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Points of interest

All photos by the author, 2013 (except as otherwise noted):

A: US 19's course in northern Mercer County is an extremely twisting course that runs parallel to the West Virginia Turnpike. It's doubtless that portions of the road underwent minor straightening in the 1950s, but the only bypassed section that's still a discrete road (blue arrows) is located near the final crossover at Camp Creek itself. (USGS, 1968)

B: It's quite likely that WV 4 and US 19 used a different route south of Camp Creek in the earliest years of the state highway system. The main proof of this comes from the 1922 state highway map (left), which shows WV 4 aligned on a direct course between Camp Creek and the Bluestone River. By 1933, this road had been abandoned as a major highway in favour of a more wandering but level route staying within the Bluestone River valley.

The bypassed sections of road are highlighted in yellow on the second image...and although they were direct, they were also steep, mountainous, and laced with hairpin turns. Today they are numbered CR 19/8, 5, and 19/12, and one segment bears a sign indicating its heritage as the "Old Spanishburg Road."

C: Just south, US 19 passes by its intersection with WV 10 at Lake Shawnee, which looked like this once upon a time. Nowadays, it's a major ruin. (Postcard, early 20th century.)

D: After finishing its winding course through the Bluestone River Valley, US 19 climbs the grade of Black Oak Mountain north of Princeton and approaches the city on Honaker Avenue. It circles the Mercer County Courthouse, touching WV 20 in the process. (Photo by the author, 2000.)

E: South of Princeton's courthouse, Route 19 passes by the site of the bygone mid-century Princeton Airport (still alluded to in a side street named "Airport Drive"), and also passes this ancient Dairy Queen (since remodelled, alas). This is the point where 19's pre- and post-1930s alignments diverge. (Photo by the author, 2008.)

Looking back towards Princeton from US 19's 1933 alignment, seen here in an early tourism postcard. The site of the historical Princeton Municipal Airport was to the left of the road in the field in the distance. Its hangar is discreetly hidden by a tree in this picture.

F: US 19's 1933 alignment takes a straight tack southwest out of Princeton where it merges with US 460 via Appalachian Development Highway Corridor Q. When the intersection with Q was completed in the late 1970s, a bit of US 19 ended up getting cut off in the process, leaving a short stub of old road dubbed Expert Circle (CR 19/49). Here is that stub, looking back in the direction of Princeton. A guard rail bisects the road in the distance, separating old stub from still-extant highway.