S.R. 9 is truly a town and country highway, traversing some of the wealthiest areas in Georgia from Atlanta to the mountains. The highway begins in Midtown Atlanta near Georgia Tech and continues north to end at U.S. 129/S.R. 11 northwest of Cleveland extending from the heart of the city to the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Towns and cities along the route include the elite Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, yuppie Sandy Springs, the upper class suburbs of Roswell and Alpharetta, fast-growing Cumming and the historic cities of Dawsonville and Dahlonega.

S.R. 9 is overlapped in part by U.S. 19 for approximately 23 miles along two sections. It shares mileage with five other state routes as well. Nevertheless, much of the route between I-285 in Sandy Springs and S.R. 52 near Dahlonega holds its own. From Atlanta to Alpharetta, it is mostly four-lanes, including two parallel one-way streets in Midtown Atlanta. This is broken only in the old part of Roswell where the roadway merges to three lanes with a reversable center lane. North of Alpharetta, the roadway merges to two lanes the remainder of its length as it becomes less urban and eventually rural north of Cumming. Over its entire length, S.R. 9 extends 85 miles passing through Fulton, Forsyth, Dawson and Lumpkin counties. State routes that overlap S.R. 9 include S.R. 120 (6.5 miles), S.R. 20 (1.7 miles), S.R. 53 (0.1 mile), S.R. 52 (approximately 5 miles) and S.R. 60 (approximately 7 miles) meaning that 50 miles are exclusive to S.R. 9.

S.R. 9 has many names along its length. In Atlanta, it follows 14th Street from Northside Drive (U.S. 41) to West Peachtree Street where it turns north. Southbound joins 14th Street along Spring Street. These two one-way pairs continue up to Peachtree Street where they merge into a single undivided four-lane roadway. S.R. 9 then follows Peachtree Street up to the center of Buckhead where Peachtree Street ends. From there, S.R. 9 forks off onto Roswell Road at the southern end of S.R. 141. The roadway then continues as Roswell Road up to Roswell, then Alpharetta Highway north to Alpharetta. Entering Forsyth County, the roadway then changes names to Atlanta Highway up to Cumming then Dahlonega Highway north of Cumming. The roadway is then simply S.R. 9 along the remainder of its length with exception to Dahlonega. The shorter downtown street names outside of Atlanta were not mentioned.

Much of S.R. 9 today exists solely to serve the many towns and cities along along the highway, including the county seats of all four counties it serves. It is a very busy highway even though it has largely been replaced by I-75, I-85 and S.R. 400. In many places, it is less than a mile from the highway that replaced it. Only the portion from Dahlonega northward still actually functions today as a major highway, though S.R. 9 north of Cumming provides the most direct route to the county seat of Dawson County, Dawsonville.

S.R. 9 HISTORY, PHOTOS AND SUPPLEMENTAL ROUTES