Upon completion of the present US 72
expressway in the 1990s, the old road was given to the county and cities of
Stevenson and
Bridgeport to maintain as
County Road 74 (
CR 74), but the local governments convinced the state to take back the road, which was redesignated SR 277 in March 2003. County leaders and city leaders in
Bridgeport and
Stevenson were not happy about the road being their responsibility and turned down requests to take the road back several times. The roadway has many bridges and is designed in such a way that maintenance of the road was deemed too expensive for
Jackson County. After a large effort by the county and local state legislators to get the route back under state control,
ALDOT reluctantly took back the highway as SR 277, insisting that they would swap mileage with
SR 35 west of
Scottsboro. However, that mileage swap never occurred and SR 35 west of Scottsboro remains a state-controlled highway. SR 277 does not include all of former US 72. The route is long and only includes the portions between the interchange of old US 72 and US 72 east of Stevenson to US 72 just east of Bridgeport. SR 277 travels on the original
Memphis and Charleston Railroad bed. ==Major intersections==