U.S. Route 25E

US 25E in Grainger County, Tennessee in 1979

The route of US 25E was reportedly first traversed by Native Americans, long before the area was settled by European pioneers. During this period, the route was considered a part of the Cherokee Warriors' Path.[12] Most notably, the Cumberland Gap to Bean Station section of the route was used as part to Kentucky on famous pioneer and settler, Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road, being used for early interstate travel through Appalachia.[13][14] By 1821, the pathway of the Wilderness Road from the Cumberland Gap to Bean Station would be established as the Bean Station Turnpike, and would receive state funding while it being a privately owned toll route due to its importance for early interstate travel in the Appalachia region.[15]

In 1915, the Bean Station Turnpike path of what would become US 25E, with a extension to Morristown in Tennessee, was designated a part of the Dixie Highway, one of the routes in the National Auto Trail system, one of the earliest highway systems developed in the United States.[13]

Through-out the early to mid-20th century, the route from the Cumberland Gap to Tazewell, along with SR 33 from Tazewell to Knoxville, was part of the infamous Thunder Road, which was used by bootleggers to illegally transport and trade moonshine.[16] The story was later fictionally adapted into a 1958 crime-drama film and song of the same name.[17]

Before the Cumberland Gap Tunnel was opened in 1996, US 25E passed through the Cumberland Gap in Virginia. Prior to the U.S. highway system's arrival, Virginia's State Highway 10 began at the Cumberland Gap and proceeded to Bristol.[18] A short spur south to Tennessee was soon added, becoming State Route 107 in the 1923 renumbering, and State Route 100 in the 1928 renumbering.[19]

Early U.S. Highway planning assigned the number U.S. Route 411 to SR 10 through Cumberland Gap to Kentucky, and no number to SR 107.[20] By the final 1926 plan, US 411 was truncated to Cumberland Gap, and US 25E ran from Tennessee to Kentucky along SR 10 and SR 107.[2] The State Route numbers were dropped in the 1933 renumbering.

In 1965, the US 25E corridor from I-75 in North Corbin to I-81 in Morristown would be proposed as Corridor S of the ARC's Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS).[21][22] Kentucky officials would ask for the designation in Kentucky to be removed, with Corridor S only designated on US 25E in the state of Tennessee with the passing of the Appalachian Regional Act of 1965.[21]

With the increased use of the corridor, many portions in urbanized areas would become deficient, leading to plans for its widening and relocation. Construction began in 1975 and completed in 1977. US 25E was widened into a four-lane bypass in the Morristown–Hamblen urban area from I-81 exit 8 to the Grainger County line at Cherokee Reservoir. Tennessee transportation personnel proposed plans in 1979 to rename US 25E to US 25, as US 25W had largely paralleled or was concurrent to the I-75 corridor. However, the plan was dismissed following dissent from Kentucky officials.[23]

Through-out the 1970s to the 1990s, highway improvement projects conducted by a joint-effort between the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), began to widen US 25E between the town of Cumberland Gap to Interstate 81 south of the city of Morristown into a limited-access and partial controlled-access highway.[22] Transportation and engineering personnel in Kentucky would widen the route from I-75 to the city of Middlesboro in preparation of the Cumberland Gap tunnel project.[24]

Following the signing of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act in 1991, the US 25E corridor from Corbin, Kentucky to Morristown, Tennessee was defined as High-Priority Corridor 12, establishing US 25E as part of the National Highway System.[8]

Before the completion of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel, US 25E saw increased congestion following an uptick in truck traffic bypassing I-75 through Campbell County and Knoxville.[24] The route is considered an alternate corridor of I-75 attractive to commuters to regional metropolises such as Morristown and Corbin-North Corbin and truckers alike connecting to interstates 81 and 75, bypassing the congested 75 in Knoxville.[4]

Since the 2000s, congestion from truck and commuter traffic, and the issue of access control has brought several projects in Tennessee and Kentucky on upgrading US 25E up to Interstate Highway standards. Kentucky transportation officials cited the route as a "travel corridor the Eastern Seaboard (via connection to Interstate 40 and Interstate 81 in Tennessee) for through traffic."[3][25][26]

As of the 2013 , 26.5 miles (42.6 km) has been completed of Corridor S along 25E, while 22.2 miles (35.7 km) remains to be constructed, which consists of rest areas and design and construction of interchanges to meet Interstate Highway standards along the stretch of 25E labeled corridors F and S.[27][28]

Cumberland Gap project

The Kentucky entrance of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel carrying US 25E, facing south to Tennessee

See also: Wilderness Road

In the mid-to-late-20th century, US 25E between Middlesboro and Cumberland Gap had seen an uptick in fatal collisions, with the stretch of highway through the Cumberland Gap nicknamed "Massacre Mountain."[29] In 1973, officials with the National Park Service received initiatives to construct tunnels underneath the Cumberland Gap in order to resolve the accidents and restore the Cumberland Gap to its pioneer-era state of the 1770s, a motion set forth by the establishment of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park by the United States Congress in 1940. The plan, consisting of the construction of twin 4,600 foot long tunnels, five miles of new a four-lane controlled-access US 25E, two interchanges, seven bridges, and the restoration of the Cumberland Gap, was presented with a cost of $265 million dollars and was led by joint effort between the National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration. Design work for the project started in 1979, and construction on the tunnels and the new four-lane 25E began in 1985.[29]

The Cumberland Gap Tunnel would open in 1996, completely bypassing Cumberland Gap and Virginia.[29] U.S. Route 58 was moved to a new alignment, meeting the new four-lane US 25E in Tennessee, decommissioning US 25E through Virginia. As old US 25E lied within the boundaries of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park its pavement was torn up, and the path was restored into a hiking trail along the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap.[30]

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to U.S. Route 25E.

• US 25 at KentuckyRoads.com
• Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
• Tennessee Department of Transportation