Kentucky Route 61 (KY 61) is a long

Kentucky State Highway State highways in Kentucky are maintained by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, which classifies routes as either primary or secondary. Some routes, such as Kentucky Route 80, are both primary and secondary, with only a segment of the route li ...

extending north from the

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

line in

Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Cumberland, historic county *Cumberl ...

to Columbia in Adair County through to Greensburg in Green County. From there, the route traverses

LaRue LaRue is a French topographic name for someone who lived beside a road, track, or pathway, Old French ''rue'' (Latin ruga ‘crease’, ‘fold’), with the definite article ''la''. It literally means "the street" in French. It is a surname and s ...

, Hardin and

Bullitt ''Bullitt'' is a 1968 American action thriller film directed by Peter Yates from a screenplay by Alan Trustman, Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner and based on the 1963 crime novel ''Mute Witness'' by Robert L. Fish. It stars Steve McQueen, Ro ...

counties to terminate in Jefferson County (where it is commonly signed as Preston Street or Preston Highway) at the junction of U.S. Route 31E (East Main Street) in downtown

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

Route description

Cumberland and Adair County

The first of KY 61 is considered part of the

Appalachian Development Highway System The Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS) is a series of highway corridors in the Appalachia region of the eastern United States. The routes are designed as local and regional routes for improving economic development in the historica ...

’s Corridor J project. That stretch of highway is one of five segments of that ADHS project, along with KY 90,

US 27 U.S. Route 27 or U.S. Highway 27 (US 27) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in the Southern and Midwestern U.S. The southern terminus is at US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 (I ...

, KY 914, and

KY 80 Kentucky Route 80 (KY 80) is a state highway in the southern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. The route originates on the state's western border at Columbus in Hickman County and stretches across the southern portion of the state ...

going from Burkesville through Burnside to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. KY 61 runs concurrently with KY 90 into downtown Burkesville. KY 90 branches westward, while KY 61 goes onto a northwestward course, and turns northeast near the

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

of the Cumberland, Metcalfe, and Adair County lines. Going north, the route crosses the Adair County line twice, and enters the far eastern tip of Metcalfe County before entering Adair County the second time. KY 61 has junctions with the

Louie B. Nunn Louie Broady Nunn (March 8, 1924 – January 29, 2004) was an American politician who served as the 52nd governor of Kentucky. Elected in 1967, he was the only Republican to hold the office between the end of Simeon Willis's term in 1947 and ...

Cumberland Parkway The Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Expressway is a freeway in the U.S. state of Kentucky, extending from Barren County in the west to Somerset in the east. It is one of seven named highways designated in Kentucky's parkway system. Route description ...

and

on the west side of Columbia. KY 55 (Columbia Bypass) also has a concurrency with KY 61 near Columbia as well.

Green, LaRue, Hardin, and Nelson Counties

KY 61 goes on a northwestward course to

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

and

counties, traversing Greensburg and Hodgenville, respectively.

US 68 U.S. Route 68 (US 68) is a United States highway that runs for from northwest Ohio to Western Kentucky. The highway's western terminus is at US 62 in Reidland, Kentucky. Its present eastern terminus is at Interstate 75 in Findlay, Ohio, thou ...

and KY 70 runs concurrently with KY 61 in Greensburg, then

US 31E U.S. Route 31E (US 31E) is the eastern parallel route for U.S. Highway 31 from Nashville, Tennessee, to Louisville, Kentucky. Route description Tennessee US 31E begins as the Ellington Parkway at the corner of Main Street and US&n ...

gets co-signed with KY 61 near

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is a designated U.S. historic park preserving two separate farm sites in LaRue County, Kentucky, where Abraham Lincoln was born and lived early in his childhood. He was born at the Sinking Spri ...

. At Hodgenville, KY 61 continues northwest into Hardin County to the US 31W and

Wendell H. Ford Wendell Hampton Ford (September 8, 1924 – January 22, 2015) was an American politician from Kentucky. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Governor of Kentucky from 1971 to 1974, and as a member of the United States Senate for 24 ye ...

Western Kentucky Parkway The Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway is a controlled-access highway, freeway running from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Elizabethtown to near Nortonville, Kentucky. It intersects with Interstate 65 in Kentucky, Interstate 65 (I-65) at its e ...

junction in Elizabethtown, and runs concurrently with the northbound lanes of the U.S. route there. In downtown Elizabethtown, KY 61 begins a concurrency with

US 62 U.S. Route 62 or U.S. Highway 62 (US 62) is an east–west United States Highway in the southern and northeastern United States. It runs from the Mexican border at El Paso, Texas, to Niagara Falls, New York, near the Canadian bo ...

from there through the

I-65 Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south interstate highway in the central United States. As with most primary interstates ending in 5, it is a major crosscountry, north–south route, connecting between the Great Lakes and the Gulf ...

Exit 94 interchange, all the way to just past

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, in western Nelson County.

Bullitt County and Metro Louisville

KY 61 then runs further northward to

Bullitt County Bullitt County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 82,217. Its county seat is Shepherdsville. The county was founded in 1796. Located just south of the city ...

(into Lebanon Junction and Shepherdsville) and then the

- Jefferson County metro area, with major junctions with I-65, and then

I-265 Interstate 265 (I-265) is a Interstate Highway partially encircling the Louisville metropolitan area. Starting from I-65 in the southern part of Louisville, it runs through Jefferson County, Kentucky, crosses the Ohio River on the Lewis ...

and

I-264 Interstate 264 is the designation for two Interstate Highways in the United States, both of which are related to Interstate 64: *Interstate 264 (Kentucky), a bypass of Louisville, Kentucky *Interstate 264 (Virginia) Interstate 264 (I-264) ...

(with access to I-264 eastbound only), along with

US 150 U.S. Route 150 (US 150) is a 571-mile (919 km) long northwest–southeast United States highway, signed as east–west. It runs from U.S. Route 6 outside of Moline, Illinois, to U.S. Route 25 in Mount Vernon, Kentucky. Route descript ...

(Broadway) before terminating in downtown Louisville at a junction with US 31E (East Main Street) at

Louisville Slugger Field Louisville Slugger Field is a baseball stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. The baseball-specific stadium opened in 2000 with a seating capacity of 13,131. It is currently home to the professional baseball team, the Louisville Bats, Triple-A affiliat ...

Major intersections

References

External links

* * * * * * *
KentuckyRoads.com KY 61
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