South Carolina Roads - US 176/SC 9

US 176 and 176/SC 9

All photos are westbound. The first 16 (through the gas station signs) are courtesy Lou Corsaro.


Crossing the Broad River north of Columbia on Broad River Road, which happens to be US 176. The sign tells me that I'm also crossing from Cherokee to Catawba country, and that I'm just two miles from the Revolutionary War river crossing Faust's Ford (bridges were a luxury back then). The first bridge at this location was burned during the Civil War to stop, ironically, General Sherman. He just used pontoons anyway, then burned everything else he found. As payback, the next Broad River bridge at this location burned again in 1925, until the third generation bridge was built, which apparently stands to this day. Can you read all that on this sign? Give yourself a gold star, and make it two if you caught the art deco lettering underneath the palmetto tree.


Westbound in the suburb of St. Andrews, where state-name overhead shields (on signs with too many dividing lines) are complemented by a ground-mounted state-name shield. The second and third photos are part of the same original.


First, an overhead SC state route shield missing the SC, so that it looks like a box (or MA 60), hangs next to an overly black US shield, and then everything is made right at SC 34.


Okay, not all of these were posted on US 176, in fact very few of them ever were. They're from all over the state, and possibly from other states, and they made their way here somewhere in the Union area (yes, a town in South Carolina called Union). The school sign is embossed, the Church Zone sign is wooden, the Sidewalk Closed sign is stenciled in an old construction font, and the MAXIMUM SPEED 50 sign is from many, many years ago.


The High Water sign can fold when there isn't high water. The Road Ends sign must have started out yellow, but you can barely tell now.


A collection of other old road-related signs has also made their way there. That's an American sign from back before "vintage" replicas were being remade.


This fence needs me to go through it one piece at a time. I-77 and I-85 state-name shields are around 15-30 years old (77 is probably older), and then buried in there past the speed advisory signs (nice collection) and before the fire hydrant is an original US 501 shield! I wonder if they'd miss one little ol' sign... you can barely even see it there!


The left side of the same fence, there's the proof that at least a couple of these signs came from the US 176 area (see below - SC 9 is most definitely related). The red LEFT TURN sign at left (below the curve) was paired with a YIELD.


The wall opposite the old gas station signs from above. A lot more gas station signs and other old roadside memorabilia. Lou, you found a good backroad.


My photos start in Spartanburg, west of where SC 9 holds onto old 176 (it picks up the trail in Jonesville, stays there through Pacolet, and then current US 176 comes back for the duplex). The Clinchfield Railroad died just before I was born, in December of 1982, but CSX still uses the line that goes over this overpass, and hasn't bothered to change the name (thanks!).


I-585 does NOT exist by any of these signs, and in fact doesn't even really exist by the first sign on the I-585 page (linked below), but there is a Business I-585 that exists here, and it's really just signed like you see here. The last photo is mine and replaced one of the assemblies in the first two Lou Corsaro photos. I-585 is really just around to give an Interstate designation to US 176, but there's a much more interesting story than that, and you'll have to visit that page to find out. Again, linked below, go go go.


Past I-585, US 176 crosses I-26 for the last time.


Closing out the page with two more Lou Corsaro photos, the second one is at SC 14, and as Lou pointed out to me, that's a North Carolina state-name shield. Landrum is close to the border, but SC 14 does intersect I-26 on the south side at Exit 1.

Onto US 176/I-585
Onto US 21 and US 176/21
US 76 and US 176/76/21
Onto SC 9 alone


To I-20
Onto I-26
Back to South Carolina Roads
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