West Virginia's Original 1922 State Highway System

The history of highways in West Virginia dates back to time immemorial. Centuries before the advent of colonialist settlement, the region was crossed by a network of indigenous footpaths following river valleys and other natural features. The National Road was constructed across the northern panhandle of then-western Virginia in 1818. Numerous private and public turnpikes were built across the Appalachians over the next half-century, both before and after the Civil War.

In the late nineteenth century, railways displaced turnpikes as the high-speed and long-distance transportation conduits of choice, leaving vehicular roads outside of towns and cities to languish in a state of rutted dirt. Starting in the nineteen-teens, however, a succession of happenings occurred:

Motor vehicles exploded in popularity. In 1910, there were roughly 1000 motor vehicle registrations in West Virginia. By 1920, this figure had increased to more than 69,000.
In 1917, the West Virginia State Road Commission was formed. This agency would go on to be tasked with maintaining the Mountain State's highways for the next fifty-two years.
In 1918, the state of Wisconsin became the first jurisdiction in the world to erect a signed system of numbered roads. The idea spread like wildfire to other states and provinces in the years that followed.
In 1920 the Good Roads Amendment was passed by the West Virginia Legislature, providing for road construction and improvements to be financed with state funds.
In 1921, the State Road Commission was expanded and tasked with classifying all roads in West Virginia into "state" and "county" tiers.

These circumstances directly led to the advent of the West Virginia State Highway System in 1922...and the advent of route numbering, done by painting 24-inch red and white bands on telephone and telegraph poles:

This system is the foundation for the highway numbering still used in the state today. But how did these numbers come to be?

Structure of the original numbering system

As it turns out, the numbering of West Virginia's original highway system wasn't random. It had a perceptible structure that revealed itself on close analysis.

The first level of structure was directional. Odd-numbered highways (1, 3, 5...67) had an east-west orientation, following the course of features such as the Kanawha River and B&O Railroad. Even-numbered highways (2, 4, 6...68) had a north-south orientation, following the Ohio River and the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains.

The lowest numbers (1, 2, 3, and 4) were assigned to the four most major cross-state roads, intended as conduits for high volumes of traffic. Higher single-digit numbers were assigned to lengthy roads of secondary significance.

Though there was no grid system per se, route numbers were assigned so that blocks of similar numbers were clustered close together on the map. As such, Routes 10 through 19 were all in west-central West Virginia, while the 20s were clustered in the northern panhandle and Allegheny Highlands. Route 29 was the designation for West Virginia's portion of the National Road.

The 30s and 40s consisted of short roads acting as connectors for longer highways...clustered in the west-central and eastern regions of the state, respectively.

Highways with numbers in the 50s and 60s were of short and intermediate length, and were correspondingly clustered in northeast and southwest West Virginia. The highest highway number assigned in the original 1922 allocation was 68, with higher numbers reserved for the future expansion of the system.

Changing the highway map: 1923 to the present.

Over the last hundred-plus years, many of West Virginia's highways have been reclassified, renumbered, lengthened, truncated, consolidated, and decommissioned. Because of this, the structure of the state's original 1922 route plan has been obscured. There were several events that contributed to this:

The U.S. highway system debuted, absorbing many of the most significant West Virginia state routes.

No fewer than sixteen of the original 1922 state highways were completely displaced by U.S. numbered highways starting in 1926. These included three of the four low single-digit highways initially intended to be the main vehicular routes in the state.

U.S. numbered highways had a ripple effect, spurring further renumbering.

Nine original 1922 state highways had their numbers changed so that they would not conflict with U.S. numbered highways. In most cases this happened between 1926 and 1931, but WV Route 48 was not changed until 1977.

As the U.S. numbered highway system was being established, the state highway system was being continually streamlined.

Some twenty-two highways were renumbered or absorbed into other West Virginia state routes for no reason but to tidy up the map (consolidating two or three short highways into one longer route to simplify navigation and bookkeeping) and sometimes for no obvious reason at all. Virtually all of these changes happened within the first two decades of West Virginia's highway system, with some consolidations taking place before the 1920s had even drawn to a close.

Inactive highway numbers were continually recycled.

By the end of the 1940s, 58 numbered state routes had been renumbered or decommissioned. Of these, 31...or over half...had had their numbers reassigned to a different road.

Survivors of 1922: The exceptions to the rule.

In spite of all the changes, twenty-one original West Virginia state routes have survived in existence with their original numbers. These include West Virginia State Route 2, one of the four "major" cross-state highways designated in 1922. Virtually all of the individual highway routings have been lengthened, truncated, or realigned in the intervening century, but all have an uninterrupted continuity of existence through to the present day.

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