“H” is for Highway 17. Also known as the Ocean Highway. U.S. Highway 17 enters South Carolina at the North Carolina border near Little River, then hugs the coast for almost two hundred miles before exiting the state at Savannah, Georgia. It is the linear descendent of the King’s Highway, a colonial-era post road that connected the American colonies by 1750. Traces of the colonial highway can still be found. The first straightening and paving of the King’s Highway in South Carolina began in 1927, when bridges were built to cross the main inlets. In the first half of the 20th century, the highway was instrumental in bringing tourists to Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand. Today, Highway 17 closely follows the route that Native Americans, early settlers, and even President George Washington traveled, more than two centuries ago.
