Gordon Highway is a major highway in the east-central part of the U.S. state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, traveling through the southern part of Columbia County and the northeastern part of Richmond County. It is named after John Brown Gordon, a Confederate general. At its western end, it is a relatively rural highway, but at its eastern end, it is an urban corridor of the Augusta metropolitan area. It connects

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

and rural areas of southern Columbia County with Augusta and

North Augusta, South Carolina North Augusta is a city in Aiken and Edgefield counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina, on the north bank of the Savannah River. It lies directly across the river, and state border, from Augusta, Georgia. The population was 24,379 at the ...

. It also serves as the two main entry points to

Fort Eisenhower Fort Gordon, formerly known as Fort Eisenhower and Camp Gordon, is a United States Army installation established southwest of Augusta, Georgia in October 1941. It is the current home of the United States Army Signal Corps, United States Army Cy ...

, formerly Fort Gordon. Its entire length, from the southeastern edge of Harlem to the Georgia–

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

state line on the northeastern edge of Augusta, is signed as part of US 78/ US 278/ SR 10. In Augusta, it is signed as parts of US 1 and US 25/ SR 121.

Route description

Columbia County

Gordon Highway begins as part of the concurrency of US 78/ US 278/ SR 10 on the southeastern edge of the

city limits City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary (real estate), boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. ...

in Columbia County, where the roadway continues into the city with the local name of Milledgeville Road. The highway travels through the unincorporated communities of

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

and Berzelia. A few thousand feet later, Gordon Highway curves to the northeast, entering into Richmond County (and the city limits of Augusta), and begins paralleling the northern edge of

Richmond County

Gordon Highway serves as the access point for Augusta State Medical Prison. A short distance later is Fort Eisenhower's Gate 3, a

commercial vehicle A commercial vehicle is any type of motor vehicle used for transporting goods or paying passengers. Depending on laws and designations, a commercial vehicle can be any broad type of motor vehicle used commercially or for business purposes. Classi ...

gate for the Army base. At the

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...

with the eastern terminus of SR 223 (East Robinson Avenue), is an

access road A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. Where parallel high-speed roads are provided as part of a maj ...

for Fort Eisenhower's Gate 2, a variable-hour gate. Approximately later is an intersection with the southern terminus of SR 383 (Jimmie Dyess Parkway) and the northern terminus of an access road to Fort Eisenhower's Gate 1, the 24-hour main gate for the base. About halfway between this intersection and the interchange with Interstate 520 (I-520; Bobby Jones Expressway), Gordon Highway leaves the edge of Fort Eisenhower and begins to transition into an urban corridor. After the interstate, the roadway enters the main part of Augusta, traveling south of Aquinas High School, and curves to the south-southeast, past the location of the now-closed Regency Mall. Immediately after a slight curve to the east is an intersection with US 1/ SR 4 (Deans Bridge Road). At this intersection, US 1 joins the concurrency. Gordon Highway curves slightly to the east-southeast to an interchange with US 25/ SR 121 (Peach Orchard Road), which both join the concurrency. The six highways take Gordon Highway to the east-northeast and intersect the northern terminus of Doug Barnard Parkway (former SR 56 Spur) and the southern terminus of Molly Pond Road. Gordon Highway curves to the north-northeast and intersects Laney Walker Boulevard, thus effectively entering

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

. It travels just to the northwest of Magnolia Cemetery, Cedar Grove Cemetery, and May Park and southeast of the James Brown Arena. A short distance later, they travel to the east of Old Medical College and the Old Government House, then have an interchange with US 25 Bus./ SR 28 ( Broad Street). Here, US 25 Bus. meets its southern terminus. Just after this interchange, the highway crosses over the

Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the Southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and South Carolina. The river flows from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, ...

into

. At the state line, SR 10/Gordon Highway end, while US 1/US 25/US 78/US 278, concurrent with South Carolina Highway 121 (SC 121), travel on the Jefferson Davis Highway to the northeast toward North Augusta. The entire length of Gordon Highway in Richmond County is part of the National Highway System, a system of roadways important to the nation's economy, defense, and mobility.

History

Gordon Highway may have existed in 1955 when it was proposed in the 1950s stretching from Milldegeville Road to North Augusta, which made getting to Augusta faster. in 1957, it was extended to 5th Street; that year US 1/US 25/US 78/US 278/SR 10/SR 12/SR 21 were shifted there. During the 1980's and 1990s there were widening project on Gordon Highway Following the

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after the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

during the Summer of 2020, Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis created the Task Force on Confederate Monuments, Street Names and Landmarks. The eleven member task force - consisting of local historians, educators, descendants of Confederate figures, and community activists - was charged with examining the renaming, relocating, or removal of places in Augusta that honor Confederate military figures. The panel returned a final report to the Augusta Commission in October 2020 with a recommendation that the name of Gordon Highway be renamed. Since the final report has been submitted, no action has been taken on the issue.

Major intersections

References