Johnson Ferry - Johnson Ferry Road

Johnson Ferry Road (often incorrectly referred to as "Johnson's Ferry Road", as most other local ferries end in -s or -'s) is now a major arterial road between Cobb County and Sandy Springs. It begins in Chamblee at Georgia 141 and travels northwest, and temporarily terminates in Sandy Springs just south of I-285 at an intersection with Glenridge Drive. Then it returns just north of I-285, also at Glenridge Drive, crossing north/south Roswell Road (Georgia 9 from Atlanta) (Hammond being the city's original name) near its central business district. It becomes four lanes at Abernathy Road, although traffic to and from the northwest generally takes Abernathy rather than the southern leg of Johnson Ferry Road. It continues northwest with various turn lanes and descends to Riverside Drive, then crosses the river, leaving the city of Sandy Springs and crossing the county line from Fulton into Cobb.

The scenery changes from tree-lined and park-like to cut-away hillsides covered with invasive kudzu vines and naturalized mimosa trees. This is the result of the 1990s widening to six lanes plus a raised median, with no replanting done except in the median. The extra lane uphill acts as a climbing lane for large vehicles, while downhill it is an extremely long turn lane for Columns Drive, much of it blocked from the adjacent lane by white plastic poles. Upon reaching Paper Mill Road, the steep climb levels off and heavier local traffic begins, passing Lower Roswell Road at Parkaire and then Roswell Road (Georgia 120 from Marietta), the major crossroads of east Cobb, and one of the county's most-traveled and most accident-prone intersections. It is also a major retail business district known as Merchants Walk, for its original shopping center. North of here, it becomes residential and goes back to four lanes and a landscaped median, passing Sewell Mill Road, Post Oak Tritt Road, and then coming to Shallowford Road (not the same as another Shallowford Road in Atlanta), which is an east-west arterial road (connecting with Sandy Plains Road and the city of Roswell). This intersection is a retail business district known as Shallowford Falls. The road continues north as a neighborhood street in the Chimney Lakes neighborhood (the location of the actual "Shallowford Falls"), finally ending at Childers Road.