Ohio State Route 32

State Route 32 (SR 32), also known as the James A. Rhodes Appalachian Highway, is a major east–west highway across the southern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. It is the eighth longest state route in Ohio, spanning southern Ohio from Cincinnati to Belpre, across the Ohio River from Parkersburg, West Virginia. Except in Belpre, leading up to the bridge into West Virginia, the entire route outside Cincinnati's beltway (Interstate 275, I-275) is a high-speed four-lane divided highway, forming the Ohio portion of Corridor D of the Appalachian Development Highway System.

SR 32 begins at a junction with Columbia Parkway (U.S. Route 50, US 50) in eastern Cincinnati, near the border between the neighborhoods of Linwood, Mount Lookout, and Columbia-Tusculum, in the area of Lunken Field. It follows Beechmont Avenue, running concurrently with SR 125, until it crosses the Little Miami River, where it turns north on Batavia Road and continues past Newtown.

At the Clermont County line, the road becomes the Appalachian Highway, a four-lane, limited-access divided highway that is part of Corridor D. Between I-275 and Mount Orab, the highway alternates between at-grade and grade-separated interchanges. In Pike County, it runs concurrently with SR 772, then with SR 124. Next, it intersects the ramps to US 23 in Piketon.

There is an unusual interchange configuration near Jackson at US 35, which is an expressway in both directions. Each highway has ramps that exit to the other highway, with right-turning traffic merging onto the second highway, but left-turning traffic coming to an at-grade intersection. Both highways end up having at-grade intersections, albeit with a grade separation of the main highway corridors. This interchange type is sometimes termed a "windmill" interchange, but it is not related to the interchange type of the same name. This junction is the only interchange of its type known to exist in the world.^{[citation needed]}

SR 124 departs at Roads. US 50 rejoins SR 32 in front of the Gordon K. Bush Airport in Albany. The two routes briefly run concurrently with US 33 in Athens.

Near Coolville, SR 7 joins from the south. Just before Belpre, US 50 and Corridor D turn south, crossing the Ohio River on the Blennerhassett Island Bridge toward Parkersburg, West Virginia. SR 32 and the Appalachian Highway continue eastward through Belpre. The Appalachian Highway ends just west of the Ohio River; SR 7 turns north, remaining a limited-access divided highway, while SR 32 continues as a surface street for a few blocks until meeting the Memorial Bridge, a toll bridge across the Ohio River into Parkersburg.

The Batavia Turnpike and Miami Bridge Company was incorporated and chartered by the state of Ohio. It built a road, which was "about finished" as of 1841, beginning at the Wooster Turnpike (Eastern Avenue), crossing the Little Miami River on the Union Bridge, and turning east to Batavia. The Ohio Turnpike to Bethel split after the Little Miami was crossed.

The passage of the McGuire Bill in 1911 led to the designation of a large number of Inter-County Highways to be maintained by the Ohio Department of Highways. This network included the Cincinnati-Batavia Road (Inter-County Highway 41, ICH 41) and Batavia-Winchester Road (ICH 125), connecting Cincinnati to Batavia, Williamsburg, Mt. Orab, Sardinia, Winchester, and beyond to an intersection with the West Union-Belfast Road (ICH 122) south of Seaman (where Graces Run Road now meets SR 247). This entire route from Cincinnati to south of Seaman was designated and signed as State Route 74 in 1923. The route left downtown Cincinnati on Eastern Avenue, shared with SR 7 (now US 52) and SR 25 (now SR 125). SR 7 left at Davis Lane (now Airport Road), while SR 25 and SR 74 turned onto Beechmont Avenue, splitting after crossing the Little Miami River. By 1925, the eastern end of SR 74 had been realigned and extended, heading east from Winchester through Seaman and continuing through Peebles to SR 73 northwest of Rarden; the old alignment (Graces Run Road) reverted to local control. Along with US 50, US 52, and SR 125, SR 74 was moved to Columbia Parkway in the early 1940s, and in the early 1950s it was removed from downtown Cincinnati to its present terminus. Due to the existence of I-74 west of Cincinnati, the number was changed to SR 32 in 1962; SR 74 signs were removed in June 1963 after a period of dual signage. The designation had originally been applied to a route running from the Indiana border west of Celina to Marysville; in 1938 it was replaced by US 33 east of St. Marys, and a rerouted SR 54, later SR 29, to the west.