State Route 140 first appeared in the mid-1920s. The two-lane highway passes through three counties along its path: Scioto, Lawrence and Jackson. It begins at an interchange with U.S. Route 52 and, immediately following the interchange, leaves the Portsmouth corporation limits and heads east. The route makes a quick hilly climb upward and downward to the former Teays River Valley near Slocum; it then traverses primarily wooded areas as it passes through Ashley Corner, Scioto Furnace, South Webster, and Eifort. It retains the forested area up until its eastern terminus. For most of its alignment, State Route 140 parallels an abandoned Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line.