Route
Williamson Road begins in the south at an interchange with Jefferson Street near the boundary of downtown Roanoke with the Old Southwest neighborhood. For the next couple of blocks, Williamson Road passes through an area consisting largely of warehouses and parking garages. The road enters the business district of downtown Roanoke at its intersection with Elm Avenue (State Route 24), which is also the location of the former Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital. For the next several blocks, Williamson Road generally marks the eastern edge of commercial development in downtown Roanoke. Williamson Road also picks up the US 11 and, briefly, the U.S. Route 221 designations in downtown. After crossing Norfolk Southern's railyard on the Hunter Viaduct, Williamson Road passes the Hotel Roanoke before an interchange with Interstate 581. The Roanoke Civic Center is located just beyond I-581 at the intersection of Williamson Road and Orange Avenue, which carries U.S. Route 460 and also picks up US 221 here. The 460-221 concurrency continues through Bedford, Virginia.
The approximately three mile segment of Williamson Road between Orange Avenue and Hershberger Road (State Route 101) developed into Roanoke's first major automobile centered commercial strip during the mid 20th century. Retail establishments, most notably Sears, restaurants, motels, and car dealerships were mainstays of Williamson Road. Cruising Williamson Road became a favored Saturday night activity for Roanoke's teenagers. The road still maintains some of this flavor though most major retail has left for malls with small, locally owned businesses remaining. Magic City Ford, a dealership located across from the Roanoke Civic Center and on the corner of Orange Avenue and Williamson Road is one of only two large dealerships on Williamson Road. The other dealership being Berglund, originally a Chevrolet dealership that now sells several makes at locations across the Roanoke area, which maintains its original location near Orange Avenue. Other new dealerships have left for larger spaces, though there are still some used car dealers. Williamson Road still features many restaurants with both fast food and sit down establishments. The past several years have also seen the establishment of businesses catering to Roanoke's growing number of Latino immigrants.
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Famous quotes containing the word route:
“A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A route is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“In the mountains the shortest route is from peak to peak, but for that you must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks: and those to whom they are spoken should be big and tall of stature.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule—
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of space—out of time.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)