Interstate 81: I-81makes a sweeping north – south path starting in Frederick County (at the Northern Virginia border with West Virginia). It skirts the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains along its 325 mile path through Virginia, south to the dual cities of Bristol Tennessee and Bristol Virginia.
 
I-81 provides some diverse terrain, taking you from flatlands, to gently rolling hills, to beautiful and challenging mountain vistas. Along the way are quaint country towns like Blacksburg, where Main Street still looks like it did at the turn of the last Century, and Staunton, with its Frontier Culture Museum, where  working farms demonstrate the rural life of the 1800s. You’ll also pass through Harrisonburg, home of James Madison University. At the northern end of I-81 is Winchester, VA. It is actually located in the Shenandoah Valley, between the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian Mountains.

Interstate 81 runs parallel to U.S. Route 11 throughout Virginia. While not as tightly, it also parallels The Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a very scenic highway drive, and certainly more beautiful than most Interstate roadways, but it can’t beat the planned and guided views from the National Park Service Parkway. While it does traverse similar country, interstate 81 provides an express view of the Blue Ridge Mountains at 70+ miles per hour. .

There are two auxiliary routes connected to I-81. Interstate 381 to Bristol, Virginia is a one and one half mile spur serviced by both a north and south interchange exit 3. The second is Interstate 581, a six lane highway approximately six miles long with clover leaf style intersections at the majority of its interchanges with local roads. Many of these cloverleaf style intersections are well known locally for being major traffic problems and bumper-to-bumper congestion is always expected. I-581 terminates in downtown Roanoke, VA.

Interstate 81 connects with three other Interstate Highways in Virginia. In the deepest southern portion of VA, I-81 is concurrent with I-77 for 10 miles. Interstate 64 meets I-81 from the west at the southern interchange in Lexington, VA and stays concurrent for about 30 miles. I-64 breaks off to the east at Staunton, VA and continues on to Richmond and its ultimate end in Norfolk, VA. Just before I-81 leaves the state to the north it interchanges with Interstate 66 in Middletown, VA. It’s a good turn off point if your destination is in the vacation areas and beaches of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, as easy access to I-95 North can be had where I-66 ends.

All in all, I-81 is a scenic highway with many varied and important destinations along its Virginia mileposts, and is a major economic corridor for the more rural western half of the state.