U.S. Route 72 (US 72) is an east–west

United States highway The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...

that travels for from southwestern

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 ...

, throughout

North Mississippi North Mississippi is a region in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Mississippi, consisting of Alcorn County, Mississippi, Alcorn, Itawamba County, Mississippi, Itawamba, Lee County, Mississippi, Lee, Pontotoc County, Mississippi, Pontot ...

North Alabama North Alabama is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Several geographic definitions for the area exist, with all descriptions including the nine counties of Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The North Alabama Industrial Development Associ ...

, and southeastern Tennessee. The highway's western terminus is in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

and its eastern terminus is in

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

. It is the only U.S. Highway to begin and end in the same state, yet pass through other states in between. Prior to the U.S. Highway system signage being posted in 1926, the entire route was part of the

Lee Highway The Lee Highway was a United States auto trail initially connecting from an eastern zero mile marker on the Ellipse in Washington DC to a western zero marker, the Pacific Milestone, in the center of San Diego, California — via the Ame ...

Route description

The highway passes through

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, and

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. Most of the original eastern and western portions of the route through roughly follows the path of the

Memphis and Charleston Railroad The Memphis and Charleston Railroad, completed in 1857, was the first railroad in the United States to link the Atlantic Ocean with the Mississippi River. Chartered in 1846, the gauge railroad ran from Memphis, Tennessee, to Stevenson, Alabama ...

, a railroad that predated the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

and now operated by

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

as their Memphis-

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

mainline. US 72 Alt. follows the Memphis and Charleston route through

West Tennessee

US 72 begins at Bellevue Boulevard ( US 51) in Memphis. From Memphis, the route follows Union Avenue and Poplar Avenue into Collierville. Just south of Collierville, US 72 junctions State Route 385 (the Bill Morris Parkway), a

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

which links Collierville with I-240. The route enters

southeast of SR 385. This segment of the highway is concurrently designated State Route 86 (SR 86) south of its concurrency with SR 57 between Union Avenue in Memphis and Collierville.

Mississippi

US 72 enters Mississippi in western Marshall County. The route follows rolling hills across the extreme northern part of the state, passing through

Walnut A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...

and

Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...

as it heads east. Near Burnsville, US 72 crosses the Divide Cut of the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway. Farther east, the route enters the

Tennessee Valley The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to north Alabama and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North C ...

and heads through Iuka before crossing into

. All of US 72 in Mississippi has been widened to four-lane highway, with the last two lane section between MS 302 and the Tennessee state line being completed in 2019. Legally, the Mississippi section of US 72 is defined in the Mississippi Code §65-3-3.Mississippi Code § 65-3-3
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Alabama

US 72 enters Alabama just west of

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

. The route parallels the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

east to

Muscle Shoals Muscle Shoals is the largest city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is located on the left bank of the Tennessee River in the northern part of the state and, as of the 2010 census, its population was 13,146. The estimated popula ...

, where US 72 Alternate splits from US 72. The mainline turns north, passing through Muscle Shoals and crossing the Tennessee River, entering

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

on the opposite bank. From Florence to

Huntsville Huntsville is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the 100th-most populous city in the U.S. The Huntsville metropolitan area had an estimated 525,465 ...

, the route heads through areas dominated by farmland. Between the two locales, however, US 72 enters

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. After passing through Athens and an overpass with

Interstate 65 Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, 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 th ...

(I-65), US 72 approaches Huntsville from the west. Part of this section has the local name

University Drive University Drive is a major east–west thoroughfare in Huntsville, Alabama, following US Route 72 into the city from the west. The highway carries on average approximately 56,000 vehicles a day at . Route Description From the west, US 72 ente ...

. At an interchange with Memorial Parkway, the route turns northward briefly, joining the routes of US 231 and US 431, until it breaks off from the Parkway and heads eastward again. (This part is known to locals as "72 East" because it is east of the Parkway; it has no other name.) Northeast of downtown Huntsville, US 72 interchanges with I-565. I-565/US 72 Alt., part of Corridor V 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 ...

, terminates at the interchange while US 72 takes over the freeway alignment, joining Corridor V. I-565 is mentioned as the eastbound route and SR 20 is mentioned as the westbound route. Signs for I-565 east at this interchange recently were changed to remove any mention of SR 20 east. Most of the US 72 portion of Corridor V is a four-lane divided expressway with at-grade intersections. Past Huntsville, US 72 follows several mountain valleys to Scottsboro. From Scottsboro, the route follows a northeasterly routing similar to that of the Tennessee River as it enters

for the second time. All of US 72 within Alabama is four lanes in width. Additionally, much of US 72 has been built through northeast Alabama with interchanges at the major state highways. Just west of Moores Mill Road in Huntsville, US 72 becomes limited access over Chapman Mountain. Throughout Alabama, US 72 is paired with unsigned State Route 2 (SR 2). The stretch of US 72 paralleling I-59 to the far northeast in between Scottsboro and South Pittsburg contains multiple freeway-style Interchanges.

East Tennessee

US 72 enters Tennessee for the second time just south of South Pittsburg. At South Pittsburg, Corridor V ends at an interchange with

Interstate 24 Interstate 24 (I-24) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It runs diagonally from I-57, south of Marion, Illinois, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, at I-75. It travels through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennesse ...

. US 64, concurrent with I-24 west of the exit, departs the expressway and forms an overlap with US 72 through Kimball to

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...

, where US 41 joins the concurrency. Just east of Jasper, the highways cross the Tennessee River on

Nickajack Lake Nickajack Lake is the reservoir created by Nickajack Dam as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The lake stretches from Nickajack Dam to Chickamauga Dam, passing through the city of Chattanooga. The Tennessee River Gorge, commonly referred t ...

. The route then follows a cut in the

Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms " Al ...

made by the Tennessee River to the western outskirts of

, where it interchanges with I-24 once more. Just east of the interchange, US 11 joins the overlap. Together, US 11, US 41, US 64, and US 72 follow the bluffs on

Lookout Mountain Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southeastern Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the 18th-century "La ...

above the

to Chattanooga, where the routes follow Broad Street north into downtown. At the corner of Main Street and Broad Street, US 72 comes to an end; US 76 begins at the intersection, making one highway in essence a continuation of the other.

History

West Tennessee

Originally, US 72 followed US 45 to Selmer and followed a route west to Memphis. In 1931, US 64 replaced US 72 between Memphis and Selmer. In 1935, US 72 was routed to Memphis through Mississippi from Corinth removing the extension on US 45 to Selmer. As late as the early 1970s, US 72 followed State Route 57 (Poplar Avenue) from Collierville to its western terminus at East Parkway N. (which carried US 64, US 70, and US 79, as well as State Route 1). During the mid-1980s until the early 2000s, U.S. 72's westbound route in midtown Memphis was changed to switch from Poplar Avenue to a westbound off-ramp connection with Union Avenue (just as its name changed from Walnut Grove Road), instead of following Poplar west to East Parkway North. (In the same trend, eastbound US 72 ignored East Parkway South and continued eastward on Union—joining SR 57—until an exit ramp deposited the two highways onto eastbound Poplar.) Some signs still remain from this route change.

Mississippi

In Tishomingo County, US 72 originally followed the current Road 172 / Quitman Street through Iuka before being bypassed in the mid-1980s. Also, An Old US 72 exists south of US 72 between Burnsville and

Glen A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. The word is Goidelic in origin: ''gleann'' in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, ''glion'' in Manx. ...

. US 72 also followed

Alcorn County Alcorn County is a county located in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,740. Its county seat is Corinth. The county is named in honor of Governor James L. Alcorn. The Corint ...

Road 218 and entered Corinth on Proper Street. Until 1935, US 72 followed US 45, now Polk Street /

Mississippi Highway 145 Mississippi Highway 145 (MS 145) is the designation for the parts of the old U.S. Route 45 (US 45) roadbed that the state continues to maintain or has designated. Those ten sections travel through Waynesboro, near Boice, ...

north into Tennessee. Also, included in the original 1935 routing west of Corinth followed Mississippi State Route 2 / Kossuth Road to Kossuth before turning west. Continuing westward, yet another segment of Old US 72 exists south of US 72 in Benton County from just west of the Tippah County line to just east of the Wolf River near Canaan. The bridge across the Wolf River collapsed due to flooding and is now closed; much of this segment is now on private property and little evidence of pavement remains due to washout and

ecological succession Ecological succession is the process of how species compositions change in an Community (ecology), ecological community over time. The two main categories of ecological succession are primary succession and secondary succession. Primary successi ...

. The continuation of this segment west of Wolf River to

Mississippi Highway 5 Mississippi Highway 5 (MS 5) is a state highway in Benton County, Mississippi, Benton County, Mississippi, United States. It runs from Mississippi Highway 178, MS 178 in Hickory Flat, Mississippi, Hickory Flat north to U.S. Route 72 in Mississ ...

is signed Wyatt Road. Finally, there is one more route that may have been a former US 72 road

alignment Alignment may refer to: Archaeology * Alignment (archaeology), a co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks * Stone alignment, a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones Biology * Struc ...

. Boswell Road begins as a curve off of US 72 between Slayden and Mount Pleasant as a gravel road, and heads generally parallel to US 72 as a gravel road, before stopping in Mount Pleasant at Mississippi Highway 311. The possible former alignment then continues from the staggered junction heading west as a partially paved road. This road is now broken by

Mississippi Highway 302 Mississippi Highway 302 (MS 302), also known as Goodman Road, is the main east-west highway in DeSoto County, Mississippi, extending into Marshall County to the east. It runs approximately south of the Mississippi/Tennessee state line, from a ...

, but continues to head west as a

gravel road A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. Gravel roads are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and ...

for a mile, for a total of approximately .

Alabama

Most of the original US 72 route in Alabama paralleled the

, a critical route for the South during the

. Some sections of the original road were named the Memphis Pike reflecting the idea of connecting Chattanooga to Memphis, Tennessee. The original route also belonged to the original route of the

. Both of these designations can be found in western Colbert County where sections of the original highway, including parts of Colbert County Route 20 still bear those names. The original route once passed through Tuscumbia on what is named today the Old Lee Highway and Main Street. This route was bypassed in the 1960s. In

US 72 originally followed Huntsville Road to Royal Avenue, then north to Tennessee Street, and finally west to Court Street. Its route was later moved two blocks south through downtown Florence, from Tennessee Street to Dr. Hicks Boulevard. East of Florence the original route is now County Highway 66 through downtown Rogersville and Killen. Athens' Clinton and Washington Streets hosted a Business 72 route in earlier years. This route was decommissioned in the 1980s. US 72 has seen several route changes in

that included a temporary route down Sparkman Drive in the 1960s. Other original routes include Andrew Jackson Way to Holmes Avenue and down Holmes Avenue to reconnect to the original route. Prior to 1931, US 72 passed through Big Cove between Huntsville and Paint Rock via Little Cove Rd/Old "US 431". That route was abandoned for the one used today over Chapman Mountain. Other original routes include State Route 35 from Woodville to the west side of Scottsboro, State Route 279 east of Scottsboro, and State Route 277 from

Stevenson Stevenson is an English language patronymic surname meaning "son of Steven". Its first historical record is from pre-10th-century England. Another origin of the name is as a toponymic surname related to the place Stevenstone in Devon, England. The ...

Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...

. State Route 277 carries the distinction of being the last two-lane section of US 72 in Alabama. Today, the entire route through Alabama has a minimum of four lanes.

Major intersections

Related routes

Muscle Shoals–Huntsville alternate route

U.S. Route 72 Alternate (US 72 Alternate) exists in

on the south side of the

between

and Decatur. US 72 alt. crosses the Tennessee River at Decatur along with US 31 and follows the entire route of

Interstate 565 Interstate 565 (I-565) is a Interstate spur that connects I-65 in Decatur with U.S. Route 72 (US 72) in Huntsville in the US state of Alabama. I-565 serves the cities of Decatur, Madison, and downtown Huntsville. It also p ...

. However, signs on

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 ...

at the I-565 exit make no mention of US 72 Alt. and only mention SR 20 westbound from the I-65/I-565 junction. SR 20 was co-signed with US 72 Alt. from Muscle Shoals to Huntsville. SR 20 has since been truncated to the junction of I-65 just east of Decatur. Originally, US 72 Alt. turned off of SR 20 on to SR 53 (Jordan Lane) in Huntsville and followed it north to rejoin with US 72. With the completion of I-565 in the early 1990s, US 72 Alt. was routed along with I-565 to the termination of I-565 at US 72. US 72 Alternate between Decatur and

is part of Corridor V of the

Notes

References

The Drive By Truckers song “72 (This Highway’s Mean)” is written about highway 72.

Sources

* Rand McNally Road Atlases 1926 - 2006

External links

Endpoints of U.S. Highway 72
{{s-end 072 072 072 072 Transportation in Chattanooga, Tennessee Transportation in Huntsville, Alabama Transportation in Memphis, Tennessee Transportation in Shelby County, Tennessee Transportation in Fayette County, Tennessee Transportation in Marshall County, Mississippi Transportation in Benton County, Mississippi Transportation in Tippah County, Mississippi Transportation in Alcorn County, Mississippi Transportation in Tishomingo County, Mississippi Transportation in Colbert County, Alabama Transportation in Lauderdale County, Alabama Transportation in Limestone County, Alabama Transportation in Madison County, Alabama Transportation in Jackson County, Alabama Transportation in Marion County, Tennessee Transportation in Hamilton County, Tennessee

Route description

West Tennessee

Mississippi

Alabama

East Tennessee

History

West Tennessee

Mississippi

Alabama

Major intersections

Related routes

Muscle Shoals–Huntsville alternate route

See also

Notes

References

Sources

External links