NC 43 original route

NC 301 - Vanceboro to Greenville

NC 43 - extended southeast to Greenville and Vanceboro

About 1936, NC 43 was rerouted to leave NC 561 at Essex instead of Hollister.

NC 43-561 split at Hollister

NC 43-561 split at Essex

In 1958, NC 43 was given its current Greenville routing, leaving behind: Charles Ave, 10th St, Albemarle St. and 5th St.

NC 43 in central Greenville

NC 43 avoiding downtown

Between 1988-90, NC 43 was extended south to its current end with US 17 in southern New Bern. This was accomplished with a short multiplex with US 17 Bus and US 17 in Vanceboro, an upgrade to SR 1401 Washington Post Rd and Weyerhauser Rd, a short multiplex with NC 55 and an upgrade to Glenburnie Rd. This extension was signed as a recommended bypass of Bridgeton-New Bern on both ends for US 17 through-traffic.
Sometime after 1968, NC 43 was put on split one-way streets in Rocky Mount. NC 43 SB began using Peachtree
By 1999, NC 43 was rerouted through Rocky Mount using Fairview Rd and Grand Ave. to reach Falls/Peachtree. Up until then, NC 43 used Cokey Rd all the way to US 301 Bus and Falls Rd. leaving downtown. Cokey Rd became secondary, while a small piece of Falls/Peachtree remains part of NC 48.
About 2002, NC 43 received a new routing (and bypass, to boot) in the Rocky Mount area. A new road was built between NC 43 and US 64A, then NC 43 jogged west on 64A to the US 64 freeway, where it multiplexes to the NC 43-48 exit. The old route through Rocky Mount became NC 43 Business in 2003 (2002 Official shows Cokey-Fairview-Grand as secondary).

NC 43 traditional Rocky Mount routing

NC 43 removed from central Rocky Mount

NC 43 bypasses Rocky Mount altogether

Per e-mail from Bryan Zellmann, in June 2009 (officially NCDOT did this in Nov 2009), NC 43 was rerouted to end at US 17-70 a little west of New Bern. The old route down to what is now US 17 Business became SR 1309.

NC 43 ending in Vanceboro

NC 43 extended to south of New Bern

NC 43 rerouted to US 17-70 west of New Bern