page_title: Birmingham, Alabama
section_title: Highways
hierarchical_section_title: Birmingham, Alabama / Infrastructure / Transportation / Highways
caption_attribution_description: English: I-20 &amp; I-59 in Birmingham
context_page_description: Birmingham is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. With an estimated 2019 population of 209,403, it is the most populous city in Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous and fifth largest county. As of 2018, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 1,151,801, making it the most populous in Alabama and 49th-most populous in the United States. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions of the nation.
  Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post–Civil War Reconstruction era, through the merger of three farm towns, most notably Elyton. The new city was named for Birmingham, England, the United Kingdom's second largest city and then a major industrial city. The Alabama city annexed its smaller neighbors as it developed into a major industrial center based on mining, the iron and steel industry, and rail transport. Most of the original settlers were of English ancestry.
context_section_description: I-20
   I-22
   I-59
   I-65
   I-222 (proposed connector between I-22 and I-422; direct interchange cannot be built due to topography)
   I-422 (proposed Northern Bypass)
   I-459 (Southern Bypass)
  The city is served by four Interstate Highways: Interstate 20, Interstate 65, Interstate 59, and Interstate 22, as well as a southern bypass expressway Interstate 459, which connects with I-20/59 to the southwest, with I-65 to the south, I-20 to the east, and I-59 to the northeast. Beginning in downtown Birmingham is the Elton B. Stephens Expressway—the "Red Mountain Expressway" to the southeast—which carries U.S. Highway 31 and U.S. Highway 280 to, through, and over Red Mountain. Interstate 22 connects I-65 and Memphis, Tennessee. Construction has begun on the first segment of I-422, a Northern Beltline Highway that will serve the suburbs on the opposite side of Birmingham from I-459.
caption: Interstate 59 (co-signed with Interstate 20) approaching Interstate 65 in downtown Birmingham
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