Cliffside North Carolina Map

About Cliffside, North Carolina

Cliffside is a locality in Rutherford County, North Carolina, United States. It is a small community with a population of 530. The population density is 87.9 people per km². Cliffside is located at 35.2480°N, 81.7653°W. It observes the Eastern Time (America/New_York) timezone. ZIP codes: 28024, 28114.

Cliffside occupies a slow-moving bend in the Piedmont, where the Second Broad River cuts a persistent, muddy channel through the red clay and tangled kudzu. It lies 13.7 miles west-southwest of Shelby, NC (from Shelby, NC: bearing 254°T), and is situated 8.5 miles southeast of Forest City. The air here holds a heavy, damp stillness, particularly in the humid afternoons when the light turns the color of burnt honey and catches the dust rising from the unpaved edges of the roads. To the west, the distant, hazy silhouette of the Blue Ridge Mountains anchors the horizon, though the immediate terrain is defined by low, stubborn rises and thickets of pine that seem to absorb the sound of passing traffic. Only two miles distant, the quiet surface of Mount Pleasant Fishing Lake mirrors the sky, a glassy interruption in a landscape defined by the steady, unceasing work of the river.

Industry once defined the physical character of Cliffside, as the towering brick structures of the textile mills dictated the daily movements of every resident, organizing life around the rhythm of the whistle and the hum of the looms. Though the looms have long since fallen silent, the village retains the architectural evidence of that era, with rows of utilitarian cottages standing as quiet observers of a shifting local economy. The social pulse of the region moves toward the open spaces of Rutherford County - Chase Community Park, where the remnants of a hardworking past transition into the quietude of a modern, rural afternoon. Life in Cliffside persists with a measured, deliberate pace, characterized by the persistent gravity of the land and the memory of the labor that once moved through its veins.

About This Cliffside Map Page

This page provides an embedded street and satellite map of Cliffside, North Carolina. Coordinates: 35.248003, -81.765287. Live weather conditions are sourced directly from the National Weather Service. Real-time local and world news feeds keep the page current.

Detailed location data for Cliffside includes the ZIP code (28024, 28114), telephone area code (704, 980), county seat of Rutherford County (Rutherfordton), and school district assignment (Rutherford County Schools).

Location data is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and cross-verified against 2020 US Census records by coordinate proximity. Population figures are sourced from the 2020 US Census.