N.C. 220 was killed by 1935 due to the presence of U.S. 220. It was renumbered in its entirety to N.C. 20. The number 20 was available because the original 20 became U.S. 74. 

Today there is an "Old N.C. 20" in Bladen County, running north of the modern 20's alignment. Presumably 220 used this road. Otherwise, 220 seems to have used exactly the same roadway 20 uses now.

The original western terminus (U.S. 301) would have been N.C. 22, 222's parent. However, maps suggest that 222 wasn't signed until after the great renumbering -- that is, after the original 22 was removed from U.S. 301. The 1933 official map shows the original 22 but not 222, and 1934 maps show 222 but not old 22. 

From where 222 nowadays joins up with 111 in the settlement of Eureka (Wayne County), 222 originally ran due east to 58. It ran over modern-day Church Street in Wayne, and Speights Bridge Road in Greene. 

Around 1937, the easternmost leg of 222 was redirected further northeast through Wayne County. It still ended at N.C. 58, but now further north, in Stantonsburg in Wilson County. 222 still uses this alignment. 

In 1940 or '41, 222 was extended further east, to N.C. 43 in Pitt County, over its current alignment. 

From Kenly, 222 was extended northwest to N.C. 42 around 1949, and to the current western terminus at N.C. 231 by 1950. 

Although a bridge across the Tar River had existed since the late 1940s, 222 wasn't extended over the river to its current eastern terminus until 1979.

The portion of N.C. 225 between U.S. 25 exit 5 and I-26 carries four lanes. It has the feel of a limited-access freeway, and has a diamond interchange with U.S. 176 and a trumpet with I-26. However, a couple of minor secondary roads do branch straight from this segment of 225, so it's not quite a bona fide freeway. 
  

First, it provides an official primary highway number for the freewayish connector between U.S. 25 and I-26. For years, this 3-mile stretch of road had no number, and was signed as "To U.S. 25" or "To I-26" depending on the direction of travel. 

Second, it gives back a state highway number to the two-lane "Old U.S. 25" that runs through the village of Tuxedo.

In Rutherford County, 226 cuts through the South Mountains. In the Marion area, 226 is signed over the U.S. 221 freeway. Further north, 226 crosses the BRP at milepost 330. Simultaneously, 226 crosses the Eastern Continental Divide at Gillespie Gap, elevation 2820 feet. 

At the Tennessee line, 226 crosses the Appalachian Trail and goes through Iron Mountain Gap, elevation 3723 feet.

226 used to go through the center of Marion, along with U.S. 221, until the 221/226 freeway around the west side of Marion was finished in the mid-1990s. The old route through town is now signed only as Business 221; there is no "Business 226". 

Other than the Marion freeway, 226 remains virtually unchanged since the late 1950s, although the road itself, under other numbers, saw many changes before that date.

N.C. 226 falls agonizingly short of border-to-border status, missing South Carolina by a couple of thousand feet. To add insult to injury, Tennessee doesn't even let 226 keep its number when it leaves North Carolina. (Tennessee does this with every state. Transporting route numbers across state lines is apparently a felony there.) 

N.C. 226 ascends the Blue Ridge Escarpment much more steeply than most other roads in the state do. From the lower junction with N.C. 226A, 226 rises about 1400 feet in 4 miles. In contrast, 226A ascends the same ridge with the same endpoints over 11 miles. 226 is used by trucks often enough to require multiple warning signs for the descent, including one (right) with a rough diagram of the road. There is one runaway truck ramp, and several admonishments to truckers not to exceed 15 mph. As recently as 1993 a sign near the runaway ramp flashed the speeds of trucks (but not of cars), but by 1995 this sign was removed.[2]

North of the hillclimb, 226 goes through the deliciously-named, if not deciduously-named, town of Spruce Pine, which as of July 2000 will forever be known as the hometown of The Basketball Coach Who Turned His Back On UNC. North of Spruce Pine, 226 is one of the more enjoyable rustic mountain backroads in the state.