Courtesy Lou Corsaro, this is at the end of the Exit 8 offramp, and clearly wrong, since the highest US highway number is 730 and the only one ever higher was 830. Also, none of the incarnations of US 48 ever had a spur. VA 148 is a primary highway to the right (gumdrop shield), and VA 775 is a secondary highway to the left (circle shield).
Some assembly is required. A little more than was done.
This sign would be easier for NB traffic to see if it were on the NB side.
The first of a pair of tunnels approaching the state line. Click on the 3rd photo to see the tunnel lettering up close. They look vintage, but the tunnel only opened in 1972.
This time, the forest sign is on the correct side of the road. Note that Exit 52 is US 52, and note the strange font for the ampersand in the last sign. (Not that the whole sign isn't strange.)
The land between the two tunnels is ripe with old signs. Every exit leads to US 52, which I-77 closely follows through here, including the last one. It's probably not signed there because US 52 NB enters I-77 at Exit 66, and traffic to US 52 SB could just use Exit 64 instead. Exit 1 is, of course, in West Virginia, and this sign feels like one state agency was trying to tell the other to make the sign instead of just letting WVDOH post it outside their territory: oversized shields or undersized sign, multiple added banners, and "2 mile"?
The second tunnel takes I-77 and US 52 to the WV border, which falls halfway through East River Mountain. The letters on this one seem much more modern, but it opened only two years later than Big Walker Mountain in 1974.
I came back a second time to get video to supplement the tunnel photos. That may or may not be why. Click to play.
This sign would be easier for NB traffic to see if it were on the NB side.
