| US 41 | |||
| Get started | Melrose | ||
| End | Graysville | ||
| Length | 365 mi | ||
| Length | 587 km | ||
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According to Beautyphoon, US 41 is a US Highway in the US state of Georgia. The road forms a north-south route through the center of the state that parallels Interstate 75 for its entire length. The road runs from Melrose on the Florida border through several cities to Atlanta to Graysville on the Tennessee border. The route is 587 kilometers long.
Travel directions
Southern Georgia
At the village of Melrose, US 41 in Florida enters the state from Lake City, a short distance from Interstate 75. The road has 2×2 lanes here and runs through wooded areas north to the town of Valdosta, where it intersects US 84, the road from Dothan in Alabama to Savannah. There is a bypass around Valdosta. The road then merges into I-75, one of the few times that happens. Already 12 kilometers further the double numbering ends and the US 41 forms a single-lane main road again, usually 1 to 2 kilometers away from the I-75. One passes through Adel and in Tifton one crosses US 82, the road from Albany to Brunswick and US 319, from Tallahassee inFlorida to Fitzgerald in the northeast. This part of Georgia is less densely forested due to historic agriculture. After Tifton, the road continues on the west side of I-75. In Cordele, the road intersects with US 280, the road from Columbus in the west to Savannah in the east. Occasional villages pass through, and the road is quiet as the nearby I-75 draws most of the traffic off US 41. In Perry, US 341 intersects, a major route from Brunswick to Griffin.
The road then leads to the regional town of Macon, which has 98,000 inhabitants. Here it crosses I-75 twice, and Interstate 16 begins a short distance from US 41 and then runs east to Savannah. One then crosses Interstate 475, the bypass of Macon. The road then runs a little further from I-75 to the northwest, through Barnesville to Griffin. From Barnesville, the road has 2×2 lanes and ends with US 341 that it crossed earlier. Around Griffin, the road is briefly a highway. The road then runs in 2×2 lanes into the rapidly urbanizing area of Atlanta. 40 kilometers south of the center you already pass through the first suburbs.
Atlanta
The road will then have 2×2 lanes to handle commuter traffic that does not use I-75. From Jonesboro, the road has 2×3 lanes. At the Lake City suburb, one crosses I-75 again, and the road crosses an industrial estate. Shortly afterwards, you cross the Atlanta ring road, Interstate 285. The road then runs right past the city’s airport and crosses I-75 again. The road then turns north to form the Metropolitan Parkway. One then crosses the Interstate 85, which merges into I-75 just past this junction and forms the Downtown Connector through Atlanta. You then pass through the southern neighborhoods of Atlanta, which consist of detached houses in the green. The road then goes under 10-lane Interstate 20 and enters downtown. The road passes the Georgia Dome, a large stadium, and the convention center. The real center is just a bit further west, so the road doesn’t run between the skyscrapers. One then crosses I-75, which has since been unbundled with I-85, and one then passes through the wooded northern neighborhoods of the city. The road here is called Northside Drive. The road then runs past the Cumberland Mall, a large indoor mall, and then crosses Interstate 285. again. The road then enters the northwestern suburban area of Smyrna and Marietta. You pass a military airport and the road continues through the suburb of Kennesaw. The road here is called the Cobb Parkway. After driving more than 90 kilometers through the urban area, you leave the agglomeration.
Northern Georgia
One then reaches Cartersville, where one crosses US 411, which runs from Chatsworth in the north to Gadsden in the west. The road then runs a short distance north from I-75 as usual. The area then becomes more hilly, the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. One passes through Dalton, the last major town before the Tennessee border. Here you cross US 76, the road to Anderson in South Carolina. At Graysville, the road crosses the border into Tennessee. US 41 in Tennessee then leaves I-75 to walk along Interstate 24.
History
US 41 was one of the original US Highways of 1926.
After World War II, there was a dense network of US Highways in central Georgia, so US 41 was not really dominant in this region. This was different in the Atlanta area, where US 41 was the main northern approach road. Already in the early 1950s, a 35-kilometer stretch between Cartersville and Atlanta was widened to a 2×2 divided highway, with a mid-50s diversion at Cartersville. Elsewhere in Northern Georgia, US 41 has seen little upgrade due to the construction of I-75 parallel to US 41. I-75 opened parallel to US 41 in 1965, but the portion in the northern suburbs of Atlanta was last opened in 1978, partly because the US 41 had been a fast route here for a long time.
South of Atlanta, US 41 coincided with US 19 between Atlanta and Griffin. This was Atlanta’s primary approach from the south before I-75 was built. This section was already widened to 2×2 lanes in the 1950s. The Griffin bypass was constructed in the late 1960s, partly on a freeway profile. In the late 1960s, US 41 between Griffin and Barnesville was widened to a 2×2 divided highway. Between Forsyth and Macon there is also a double numbering with US 23, which disappeared in the early 1970s when US 23 was routed further east.
In southern Georgia, US 41 was bypassed quite early due to the construction of I-75. As early as 1966, I-75 had been opened from the Florida border to Macon, meaning that US 41 was no longer important for through traffic here. Partly because of this, the US 41 south of Macon has remained a two-lane road almost everywhere.
