Photos progress from south to north because, as much as I-26 tries to claim it's an east-west highway, it just doesn't make sense that way. Photos also include Future I-26 north of Asheville under the hope that it'll someday be made current.


Need proof that I-26 is north-south? I-26 WB joins I-240 EB and heads east. You can see where the I-240 shield was moved in the second photo and an I-26 hastily added.


Once on I-240, I-26 loses its own exit numbering. Second fiddle to a 3-digit Interstate. Can someone explain why everything is smaller on the Exit 3A sign?


Follow the mainline and ugly shields at Exit 3B and you'll merge into US 19/23/apparently secret US 74-A. Exit at 3B and you'll be on Westgate Pkwy. under all five routes as they prepare to cross French Broad River. The old WB span (I-26 EB) is original to US 19/23 before everyone else joined.


I-240 WB/I-26 EB trumpet off of the US routes toward this sign very abruptly and just before a signalized intersection, demonstrating how I-240 was shoehorned around Asheville.


All of the indicated routes are together for these signs, minus US 70 and plus US 74-A (which stays with I-240). This appears to be where I-26 becomes Future I-26, though the last Exit 4B sign contradicts the others (it's wrong, the question is whether this has been Future I-26 since I-40). Notice the complete lack of directional banners for anything on the Exit 4A sign. You can figure out US 70 must be WB since the next sign has the EB half, but you'd have to know you're NB/WB on the other routes.


Here are all the routes together: Future I-26/US 70 WB, US 19/23 NB, then briefly joined by US 25 NB. No banners, because why not? You may also notice some shields have INTERSTATE and some don't. Although I see no issue using the proper shield with a FUTURE banner, the FHWA decided that any future Interstate needed to omit the words to avoid the appearance of being up to standard, which means absolutely zero to the average motorist and just creates more work for agencies. So with that rant over, all of the perfect usable normal I-26 shields have now been replaced with the stupid bannerless ones.


A bunch of US routes EB/SB, courtesy Lou Corsaro. This is Future I-26 EB even though it's facing south and slightly west (since Johnson City is actually slightly east of Asheville), but it isn't quite up to standards yet. Now you would see the Future I-26 shield with it since NC got the go-ahead to post those on the substandard section.

One more after US 25/70 leave at Exit 19.


Actual I-26 EB ends and becomes Future at this random interchange near Tennessee. I took this photo for the two nearly identical place names, but I also notice room for a third digit or letter in the exit tab. I know of no plans to make this an A-B exit and 11 is the correct number for I-26's mileage. The only three-digit number here is US 19's mileage, but I wouldn't think it had exit numbers pre-I-26.

Onto I-240 and 240/US 70/74-A
Onto US 74-A and US 70/74-A
Onto US 70 alone
Onto US 19 alone
Onto US 23 alone

Into South Carolina on I-26
Into Virginia on I-26 (on US 23)
Exit 31 to I-40
Exit 31 to US 74
To Blue Ridge Parkway
Into Asheville
Back to North Carolina Roads
Back to Roads