West Virginia Roads - US 11/WV 9

US 11 and 11/WV 9

All northbound photos courtesy Lou Corsaro, continuing from Virginia and into Maryland via the links at the bottom of this page. All southbound photos are mine, and also follow those links in the opposite direction.
Northbound


Finally something other than just state-name shields, overhead button copy in Martinsburg. To the right is really facing south, and then WV 9 and 45 split in opposite directions with WV 45 re-crossing US 11.


Through Martinsburg to a historical site sign.


Usually, high-numbered routes are secondary (county) routes, not primaries, and very often they were originally fractional routes. This route connects US 11 to WV 9, and could have originally been 9/1.


After all those TO signs, US 11 finds its buddy near the Potomac River and Maryland. West Virginia, like California, uses the sharp down-arrow at the far side of freeway onramps. Also, if you haven't gathered by now, WV is one of the few states that still believes in state-name shields.
Southbound


Old white sign (1932) in a ditch on the SB side, and then heading toward the first I-81 interchange in West Virginia.


If you didn't get enough state-name shields in the northbound direction, you'll hate my photos pretty quickly.


A strange number for a primary route, 901 was upgraded from secondary status (as a connector from WV 9). US 50 was the original WV 1, so the number isn't based on US 11 having been 1.


Sick of these yet? Let's take a short break.


Heading downhill through the northern reaches of Martinsburg, past WV 45 to Westphal Hose Co. No. 5. The Westphal neighborhood, northeast of the railroad tracks, is too small to have four other Hose Companies, but it turns out the entire city of Martinsburg only has one other fire station. Either there were originally other scattered ones before fire engine technology allowed for centralization, or this number was randomly picked from the number of cows spotted on a nearby meadow. I may or may not be joking.


Button copy jogging from Queen St. along King St. (obviously the center of the city) to Winchester Ave. (obviously the through street heading south). US 11 meets WV 45 again to the south, signed WV 9 EAST to the, well, east, even though there should be a TO attached.


Ugly distance sign, pretty shields. Well I think they're pretty. In fact, have some more.


SB at WV 51 West (first) and East (second), and then heading out of Inwood just past those intersections (third). WV 51 used to be a cross street at the second intersection, but the construction of I-81 put the Inwood interchange on the north side of town, thus necessitating a short duplex along US 11 to connect the dots. The old distance signs are also semi-wrong, in that Va. should really be VA (no period). Comma optional.
Onto WV 9 alone

Into Virginia on US 11
Into Maryland on US 11
Onto WV 51
Onto I-81
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