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presents

The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

WV 8 and US 52

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Highway	Start	Terminus	Length (km)
US 52 (current alignment)	McDowell County line near Coaldale	Bland County, Virginia state line, East River Mountain Tunnel	31
US 52 (old alignment)	McDowell County line near Coaldale	Bland County, Virginia state line south of Bluefield	26-29 (depending on routing)

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Overview

With a total length of more than 3,000 kilometres extending diagonally from Portal, North Dakota to Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. Route 52 has the honour of being the longest highway that passes through Mercer County, WV...a single link connecting Bluefield to Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Until being rerouted as a concurrency through the East River Mountain Tunnel in the 1980s, US 52 exited the state by means of a winding 300-metre climb over the top of the ridge. Locally it functions chiefly as a connection between Bluefield and McDowell County, where drivers take their lives into their hands by duking it out on treacherous, hilly turns with overloaded coal trucks careening around every corner.

Although US 52 was commissioned in 1926, the highway originally terminated in Huntington and was not extended to Mercer County until 1931. Its immediate predecessor was West Virginia Route 8, which ended in Bluefield at Princeton Avenue (US 19) without extending any further southward.

In 1934, the AASHO extended the highway to its present-day terminus on the Atlantic Shore. This resulted in US 52 gaining its routing over East River Mountain via a concurrency with US 21. Although even-numbered U.S. highways generally follow east-west orientations, US 52 is signed as a north-south highway within West Virginia.

Prehistory

The roads forming the original 1920s course of WV 8 and US 52 between Bluefield and Bramwell were already in place by the 1890s; the portion near the McDowell County line is a bit newer. The 1930s brought with it a rash of new road construction, and over half the highway's course (including the East River Mountain pass) was built anew at this time.

Since 1980, US 52 has been aligned onto Cumberland Road on the south side of Bluefield. Cumberland Road has a long history predating Bluefield itself by an order of magnitude, and is referred to in Virginia General Assembly documents as early as 1834. It was designated as CR 29 when West Virginia's county highway system was established in the mid 1930s, and the portions forming the approach to the East River Mountain Tunnel were briefly redesignated WV 290 in the 1970s as a stopgap until the AASHTO consented to US 52 being placed on this alignment.

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Points of interest

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

A: There's nothing unusual about a highway like US 52 undergoing realignments...but it is a bit unusual when the old alignment literally disappears! Strange as it is, that's what happened near the McDowell County Line. WV 8 and US 52's original 1920s course (left) was straightened out in 1940 (centre), with the previous and more northerly road relegated to fractional county status as CR 52/9. Eight decades later, WVDOT maps marked the west half of CR 52/9 with only a faint dashed line (code for "primitive road," which is one step above no road at all), while the east half that once ran alongside Simmons Creek has vanished from the map. This area is virtually uninhabited and already adequately connected by other roads, so it may have made more sense for the state to remove the road from its system than to continue performing upkeep on it.

B: Farther down the road near Bramwell, US 52 was routed onto a new bridge in 1991, eliminating some tricky curves and a grade crossing in the process. The old bridge is now gone, but its approaches are still there, and one of them is now a stub road numbered CR 52/38.

C: US 52 is littered with the remnants of gas stations from decades gone by...but few are as impressive as this. This was a Pure gas station, bearing the faux-residential English cottage architecture that the company used to "soften" its presence and build a distinctive brand image during the 1930s. Numerous examples of these buildings were constructed throughout the midwest and southeast, and a select few of them were open as late as the early 1990s. This particular specimen is noteworthy both for its excellent state of preservation...and for the fact that it has five (!!) service bays.

D: According to Froehlig & Roberson, the original course of WV 8 and US 52 in the 1920s and early 1930s was routed directly through what is now Pinnacle Rock State Park.

This section of road featured steep grades, sharp hairpin curves, and a narrow roadbed. Add all that together, and you have what was probably the most dangerous section of US 52 in Mercer County...and the earliest section to be bypassed. Realignment came in 1934, when traffic was shifted to an improved course slightly northeast of the original.

Pinnacle Rock is a natural sandstone formation that juts out from the surrounding terrain. During construction assessment, the formation nearly risked being dynamited due to its proximity to the new road. Instead, however, it became the centrepiece of a new park. Pinnacle Rock State Park opened its gates in 1938, with facilities built by the Works Progress Administration. It continues to captivate visitors to this day.

On the park map above, the path of old US 52 is highlighted in yellow. Most of the course forms the basis for a hiking trail, the Homestead Trail, that may be accessed on foot.

Strangely, WVDOT's maps still show the path of the road running through the park, even though it hasn't been open to traffic in over 80 years.

E: Realignments strike again! South of Bluewell (known as Dolph back in the '30s), US 52 originally followed a ponderous course bearing east, then west, then east, then coming into Bluefield through a narrow one-lane tunnel under the railroad tracks. The State Road Commission's circa-1935 map shows this alignment marked as US 52...and shows the present-day alignment under construction next to it bearing a blank U.S. route shield! By 1945 (right), the new road was open to traffic and the old road had been relegated to state secondary status as CR 11. It remains this way today, and the pre-1930s alignment is signed as Old Bramwell Road.

F: As part of its 1930s realignment, US 52 received a brand-new approach to Bluefield: The Frank Easley Bridge, spanning the Norfolk and Western railroad tracks near Bluefield State Teachers College. The bridge featured both steel truss and reinforced concrete construction, and was built in 1936.

By the end of the 1990s, the Easley Bridge was deteriorating in condition and the narrow roadbed was a liability to traffic. In 2000-01, a replacement bridge was constructed to a new abutment one block east, and the old 1936 bridge was dismantled.

However, the old bridge isn't quite forgotten. The original south abutment of the original bridge is still in place, still bearing the crumbling remnants of its original concrete railing ornamentation. And that's not the only relic to see here: Unbelievably, a US 52 reassurance marker was still posted next to the abutment more than a decade after the highway last went this way! The sign was dated 1989.

G: After clearing either of its bridges, US 52 uses the street grid to loop back one block and run concurrently with US 19 for a kilometre or so, defying logic in such a way that the "south" course of one road is the "north" course of the other. (Photo by the author, 2000).

H: In the late 1970s and 1980s, a 1.4km segment of Cherry Street and Maryland Avenue south of the Easley Bridge was signed as US 52 Spur. This was likely done to service the Bluefield Community Hospital, which opened in 1979. The spur designation didn't stick around for long, and this segment has reverted to city streets with the unsigned designation CR 52/25.

I: After separating from Route 19 once more, US 52 cuts straight through the heart of Bluefield's downtown...a place that still has gritty "mini big city" charms, though it's lost a lot of energy over the years. One of the most visible buildings is the flagship branch of the Flat Top National Bank...a defiantly modernist architectural monument from 1970 that still looks good today. And it still houses a bank.

It's hard to believe now, but as late as the 1970s Bluefield had an reputation as a prestigious shopping destination. Today, the city brims with artifacts of what once was...like the city's former J.C. Penney department store (demolished in 2024), the city's former Leggett department store, and a high-rise bearing a sign for the city's former Montgomery Ward department store. All three companies jumped ship to the Mercer Mall in 1980-82... turning Bluefield's bustling downtown into a deserted wasteland almost overnight. And in vain...since these days, the Mercer Mall is almost as deserted as the downtowns it replaced.

Facing north on Bland Street, we catch a glimpse of the previous buildings and see the road's division into a four-block-long northbound/southbound split. Yes, the streets were very quiet that day. And no, that isn't at all unusual for Bluefield.

J: Hey, another artifact of the past! A pre-1971 yellow Yield sign was still in place at the corner of US 52 and Wilson Street in 2013, though it's gone now.

K: US 52's precise historical routing on the south side of Bluefield is a bit mysterious. Today, the highway is routed down Bland Road...a wide concourse lined by trees and massive lawns. Photorevisions of USGS' 1924-era topo maps, however, show the highway being aligned down Jefferson Street...a much narrower drag a few blocks west. Jefferson Street has denser development, so it makes a certain amount of sense for US 52 to have been routed that way originally. But did it? Unfortunately, the highway routings on older USGS maps are sometimes inaccurate...and the State Road Commission's own 1930s maps don't show highway routings within city limits.

L: Immediately south of Bluefield, East River Mountain rises above the skyline dividing West Virginia from Virginia...and until the 1980s, US 52 was routed directly over this mountain by way of a narrow, winding road that rose more than 300 metres in elevation above the city streets below. Though the tacky hilltop tourist attractions that once beckoned passerby on the state line are now gone, the views are still spectacular. The road is also signed on the Virginia side as a bicycle route...quite a surprise, since West Virginia and southwest Virginia highways have never been hospitable to cyclists. (Think: Steep uphill grades, no shoulders, no dedicated lanes, traffic zipping by around you at 80 km/h, all while douchebros in pickups are yelling homophobic epithets in your direction. I never was able to enjoy cycling much in West Virginia.)

Historic pictures of the East River Mountain approach and overlook are shown on the US 21 page.

M: In December 1974, the I-77 East River Mountain Tunnel opened, freeing southbound drivers from the inconvenience (or impossibility, depending on their driving skill) of having to negotiate a twisting, mountainous grade. Around 1980, US 52 itself was rerouted as a concurrency through the tunnel. The previous overland alignment reverted to state highway status as WV 598 in West Virginia and VA 598 in Virginia. Nowadays, it's the exclusive province of dyed-in-the-wool road geeks like you and me.

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Fractional spur roads

CR 52/1 through CR 52/8 were numbered off southly from McDowell County to Bluefield as part of the original fractional number allocation in 1933, with higher-numbered roads being later additions.

Near the McDowell County line, both US 52 and several of its spurs pass through a small community signed in the field as "Coaldale." This is not the original community of Coaldale (located on the Norfolk & Western railway until being razed in the 1950s), but is rather a replacement community approximately 2 kilometres northeast of the historical location.

Road	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)	Notes
52/1	Windmill Gap Rd.	US 52, Coaldale	CR 13	7	Original 1930s assignment. Obliterated by mountaintop removal.
52/2	Coaldale Mountain Rd.	US 52, Coaldale	Tazewell County, Virginia state line	6	Original 1930s assignment.
52/3	Maybeury-Simmons Rd.	US 52, Bramwell	CR 52/1	6	Original 1930s assignment.
52/4	John Butt Rd., Pinnacle Rock-Nemours Rd.	US 52 east of Bramwell	dead end (formerly through to CR 52/6)	2	Original 1930s assignment. Road truncated in Pinnacle Rock State Park. North portion is a former alignment of US 52.
52/5	Homestead Trail	CR 52/4, Pinnacle Rock State Park	CR 52/6	insignificant	Original 1930s assignment. Former alignment of US 52. Impassable to vehicular traffic; now a hiking trail in Pinnacle Rock State Park.
52/6	Nemours Rd., Pinnacle Lake Rd., Poetown Rd.	US 52, Bluewell	WV 102, Nemours	5	Original 1930s assignment. East portion is a former alignment of US 52.
52/7	Red Oak Ridge Rd.	CR 11 near Brush Fork	WV 20 east of Bluewell	3	Original 1930s assignment.
52/8	Perdue Hollow Rd., Stoney Ridge Rd.	US 52, Brush Fork	CR 23/1 north of Bluefield	3	Original 1930s assignment.
52/9	Simmons Mountain Rd.	US 52 near Coaldale	McDowell County line near Coaldale	5	Added by 1945. Former alignment of US 52. Impassable and formally decommissioned east of CR 52/1.
52/10	Wyoming St., Ridgemont Rd., Media St.	US 19 (Princeton Ave.), Bluefield	CR 25/5 (Edgewood Rd.), Bluefield	3	Added by 1945. Does not intersect with US 52
52/11	Poetown Rd.	US 52, Bluewell	CR 52/6 near Bluewell	insignificant	East portion is a former alignment of US 52.
52/12	Scenic Ridge Rd.	CR 52/2	McDowell County line	insignificant
52/13	(unknown)
52/14	Old Coaldale Mountain Rd.	CR 52/2, Coaldale	CR 52/2	insignificant	Former alignment of CR 52/2
52/15	Perdue St.	US 52, Brush Fork	CR 37/3, Brush Fork	insignificant
52/16	Cut Off Rd.	US 52, Bluewell	CR 52/6, Bluewell	insignificant	Continuation of WV 71 (former CR 11), connecting it to CR 52/6.
52/17	Camellia Dr.	US 52, Bluewell	CR 52/19	2
52/18	Harry Heights Rd.	US 52, Brush Fork	dead end	insignificant
52/19	Pinnacle View Rd.	US 52, Bluewell	Middle Fork Rd. west of Bluewell	2
52/20	Stadium Dr.	CR 52/25 (Cherry St.), Bluefield	Tazewell County, Virginia state line, Bluefield	insignificant
52/21	Warden Ave.	US 52, Bluewell	CR 11, Bluewell	insignificant
52/22	Bluewell School Rd.	US 52, Bluewell	WV 20, Bluewell	insignificant
52/23	French St.	CR 52/19	dead end	insignificant
52/24	Haynes Rd.	US 52, Bramwell	dead end	insignificant
52/25	Cherry St.	US 52 at Highland Ave., Bluefield	Montclair St., Bluefield	insignificant	Formerly US 52 Spur
52/26	Horizen St.	CR 52/17	dead end	insignificant
52/27	(unknown)
52/28	Rogers St., Rocky Bottom Rd.	US 52, Bramwell	dead end	insignificant
52/29	Hibiscus St.	CR 52/17	dead end	insignificant
52/30	Justin Ln.	US 52 east of Bluefield	dead end	insignificant	Intersects post-1970s alignment
52/31	Wintergreen St.	CR 52/17	dead end	insignificant
52/32	Laurel St.	CR 52/17	fork one block east	insignificant
52/33	(unknown)
52/34	Don Minnix Ln.	CR 52/19	dead end	insignificant
52/35	Saunders Rd.	US 52, Bluewell	dead end	insignificant
52/36	Kingsview St.	CR 52/19	dead end	insignificant
52/37	Packing Plant Rd.	CR 52/19	WV 123 west of Brush Fork	4
52/38	Chatting Ln.	US 52, Bramwell	dead end at Bluestone River	insignificant	Former alignment of US 52, bypassed by new bridge crossing
52/39	Duck Pond Rd.	US 52, Bluewell	WV 71, Bluewell	insignificant
52/40	Sauls Rd.	CR 52/39, Bluewell	dead end	insignificant
52/41	Edgemont Dr.	US 52 (E. Cumberland Rd.), Bluefield	dead end	insignificant	Intersects post-1970s alignment
52/42	Pinnacle View Rd.	CR 52/36	dead end	insignificant
52/43	Dixie Dr.	CR 52/8	dead end	insignificant
52/44	(unknown)
52/45	Coke Plant Rd.	CR 52/19	dead end	insignificant
52/46	E. Rogers St.	CR 52/28, Bramwell	dead end	insignificant
52/47	(unknown)
52/48	Bowen Ln.	US 52, Bramwell	dead end	insignificant
52/49	(unknown name)	CR 52/48	dead end	insignificant
52/50	Byrd St.	CR 52/28, Bramwell	dead end	insignificant
52/51	Pepper St.	US 52, Bluewell	US 52, Bluewell	insignificant	Loop
52/52	Moonlight Ln.	US 52, Brush Fork	CR 11, Brush Fork	insignificant
52/53	Panarama Rd.	CR 52/30 east of Bluefield	dead end	2	Frontage road. Includes a stub of an 1980s-1990s alignment bypassed by a new interchange. Missigned as 53/52.
52/54	Ruffner St.	US 52 near East River Mountain Tunnel	dead end	insignificant

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