Tennessee State Route 266 is a state highway that exists within Rutherford County, Tennessee

Rutherford County, Tennessee

Rutherford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, it is the state's fifth-largest county by population with 262,604 people, an increase of 44.3 percent over the 2000 population of 182,023. Its county seat is Murfreesboro, which is also the geographic...

, USA. The western terminus is in a currently undeveloped section of Smyrna, Tennessee

Smyrna, Tennessee

Smyrna is a town in Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. Smyrna's population was 25,569 people at the 2000 census. The Census estimate of the 2009 population is 39,142.-Geography:Smyrna is located at ....

 west of an interchange with Interstate 24

Interstate 24

Interstate 24 is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It runs diagonally from Interstate 57 to Chattanooga, Tennessee, at Interstate 75....

. The eastern terminus is at Lebanon

Lebanon, Tennessee

Lebanon is a city in Wilson County, Tennessee, in the United States. The population was 20,235 at the 2000 census. It serves as the county seat of Wilson County. Lebanon is located in middle Tennessee, approximately 25 miles east of downtown Nashville. Local residents have also called it...

.

Route description

For most of its length through Smyrna, Route 266 is a four-lane highway called Sam Ridley Parkway, named for the mayor of the city from 1947 to 1987. (Sam Ridley was forced to resign in 1987 due to a conflict-of-interest suit; as a testament to his popularity, his identical twin brother Knox was promptly instated as mayor.) Once an undeveloped highway forming part of a beltway around Smyrna and serving the Smyrna Airport, Sam Ridley Parkway now features numerous strip malls, apartments, a high school, and a hospital. Sam Ridley Parkway officially has a terminus at an intersection with Jefferson Pike, where the road becomes Nissan Drive/Tennessee State Route 102

Tennessee State Route 102

State Route 102 is a state highway that exists entirely within Rutherford County, Tennessee. Its northern terminus is in Smyrna and its southern terminus is in Almaville, an unincorporated community in western Rutherford County, at State Route 96....

. State Route 266 continues eastward along Jefferson Pike.

Jefferson Pike is almost entirely undeveloped and rural, passing by a large Allied Waste landfill near Walterhill. It has an interchange with Tennessee State Route 840. The highway passes through Lascassas

Lascassas, Tennessee

Lascassas is an unincorporated community in Rutherford County, Tennessee, near the city of Murfreesboro...

, an unincorporated community northeast of Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the United States Census Bureau's 2010 U.S. Census, up from 68,816 residents certified during the 2000 census. The center of population of Tennessee is located in...

and the geographical center of Tennessee.