The Great Smoky Mountains Expressway is a four-lane divided highway that serves as the main east–west corridor through Southwestern North Carolina; connecting the towns of Bryson City, Sylva and Waynesville to Interstate 40.

All five exits in this segment provide direct or indirect link to nearby US 19, which is the older highway that follows more closely to the banks of the Tuckasegee River.

The Expressway itself is routed along the north slopes of the Alarka Mountains and briefly through the Qualla Boundary before crossing the Tuckasegee River, at the Swain-Jackson county line.

Having been built in the mid-1960s, it is the oldest segment of the Expressway and features a short grassy median with guardrails separating traffic lanes.

Corridor A connects I-285, in Sandy Springs, Georgia, to I-40, near Clyde, North Carolina, overlapping 26 miles (42 km) of the Expressway.

ADHS provides additional funds, as authorized by the U.S. Congress, which has enabled the Expressway to be built and successive improvements along its route.

Though US 441 has no truck route, commercial traffic is not allowed through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; recommended instead to traverse east on US 74 and then west I-40 into Tennessee.

To make the highway more consistent, in 1982, NCDOT submitted a request to AASHTO to swap US 19 and US 19A between Bryson City and Lake Junaluska; but was later withdrawn before the vote, in thanks to opposition by businesses in the resort town of Maggie Valley, who opposed losing US 19.

[9] Established on September 16, 1983, the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway was designated along US 19, US 19 Bypass and the I-40 Connector, between Alarka Road and Interstate 40.