[1] The route traverses through central Fayetteville and the Fort Bragg Army installation and crosses both Topsail Island access bridges over the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

[1] Owing primarily to its meandering route, NC 210 is the sixth longest state highway in North Carolina.

Following a winding path eastwards through several rural, unincorporated communities, it crosses US 421 and has a brief concurrency with NC 53 before turning due north and changing designations from east-west to north-south before entering Bladen County.

After it crosses US 701 south of the town of Garland it passes to the east of Bladen Lakes State Forest and continues northeast towards Fayetteville, merging with NC 53 just outside of the unincorporated community of Judson.

At the center of Spring Lake, NC 210 splits off to the northeast and crosses into Harnett County near the community of Anderson Creek.

In the north of Lillington, both US routes leave in opposite directions and NC 210 continues northwards towards Angier.

From NC 20, the highway continued to the northeast along modern-day Paint Rock Road, passing through the community.

It crossed the French Broad River at Paint Rock and intersected another road on its northern bank.

From its southern terminus, the highway ran in a northerly and northwesterly direction through Coats and Angier until reaching NC 21 in Cardenas, located northeast of Fuquay Varina.

At the time of designation, the route between Manchester and the Harnett County-Johnston County line was a gravel, sand, or topsoil road.

[11] By 1957, NC 210 was rerouted beginning at Bells Crossroads, following its current routing through Rocky Point to Hampstead.

In Surf City, NC 210 was routed to run 13 miles (21 km) northeast to the New River inlet.