^Eastbound trailblazer seen as US Route 52 leaves downtown Cincinnati toward the east, passing under Interstate 471, June 2024.

Though US Route 52 is overall a diagonal route stretching from North Dakota to South Carolina, US Route 52 acts as more of an east-west route along the southern edge of Ohio. Interstate 74 brings it from Indiana into Cincinnati, but east of Cincinnati, US Route 52 religiously follows the northern shore of the Ohio River.  It does so until escaping across a bridge into Huntington, West Virginia. From Cincinnati to Portsmouth, US Route 52 is a surface route serving all of the little towns along the Ohio River.  Across Portsmouth, and from Portsmouth to Huntington, US Route 52 is mostly a four-laned expressway; I say "mostly" because there are a few signals and some minor at-grade intersections mixed in. When US Route 52 decides to abandon Ohio for Huntington, West Virginia, it gives rise to Ohio Route 7, which finishes the job of following the rest of the state border carved by the Ohio River.

My photo of US Route 52 in Ohio comes from its junction with Ohio Route 140 just east of Portsmouth, Ohio. The westbound junction marker observed by travelers along Ohio Route 140 is posted alongside the reassurance marker for those reaching Ohio Route 140 from Ohio Route 823; this is because Ohio Route 140's junctions with US Route 52 and Ohio Route 823 are so very close to each other. This photo was taken in March 2021 as I was embarking on an exhaustive tour of the entire southeastern quarter of Ohio.
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