North Carolina Highway 226A
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| NC 226A |
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| Length: | 12 mi (19 km) | ||||||||
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| Formed: | 1959 | ||||||||
| South end: |  NC 226 near Marion, NC |
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| North end: | NC 226 near Spruce Pine, NC |
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| Major cities: | Little Switzerland (unincorporated) | ||||||||
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North Carolina Alternate State Highway 226 (also known as NC 226 Alternate or most commonly as NC 226A) is a special North Carolina state route through Pisgah National Forest. NC 226A is the only remaining alternate state route in North Carolina; all the other state routes with an "A" have been phased out. It travels north/south and is entirely within McDowell County. NC 226A provides access to the small community of Little Switzerland and essentially parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway along its northern segment. The entire route is about 12 miles (19.3 km) in length.
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[edit] Route description
NC 226A travels west (signed north) after splitting from its parent route, NC 226, near NC 226's junction with US 221 in the Pisgah National Forest. Curving along the Blue Ridge Mountains, NC 226A heads northwest toward Little Switzerland. Paralleling the Blue Ridge Parkway, the route turns westward to go through Little Switzerland and rejoin NC 226 just south of Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
[edit] History
In 1928, the road which 226A now follows used to be signed as NC 19. Around 1932, US 221 joined the NC 19 route from NC 28, north to the town of Spruce Pine. By 1934, US 221 was routed to the south and NC 19 was renumbered as NC 26. In the late 1940s, following World War II, a faster NC 26 route through the mountains was constructed; the old route was given the designation: Alternate NC 26 or NC 26A. When Interstate 26 was routed through North Carolina in 1959, NC 26 was renumbered as NC 226 to avoid confusion with the Interstate Highway. NC 26A followed the trend of its parent state route and became the NC 226A known today.
