The James River and Kanawha Turnpike was built to facilitate portage of shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western reaches of the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

via the James River and Kanawha Canal and the eastern reaches of the Kanawha River. Originally proposed by a young

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

in his surveyor days prior to the American Revolution, the canal and turnpike combination was seen as the key for Virginia to compete with northern states for rich trade to the west. However, the canal portion was an expensive project which failed several times financially, was frequently damaged by floods, and was never fully completed, although sections served for many years. It was largely financed by the Virginia Board of Public Works until after the American Civil War, when funds for continued financial help were not available from the war-torn state or private sources. In 1873,

Collis P. Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested ...

completed the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

(C&O) from the

head of navigation The head of navigation is the farthest point above the mouth of a river that can be navigated by ships. Determining the head of navigation can be subjective on many streams, as the point may vary greatly with the size or the draft of the ship be ...

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

to the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

(named in his honor), and the canal finally succumbed to the competition and the advancing transportation technology of the railroads. In the 1880s, the canal was bought and dismantled by one of the railroads, which built along the towpath and soon became part of the C & O.

Turnpike today

The Turnpike portion of the combination envisioned by Washington remained a major roadway much longer, and was only supplanted by the completion of Interstate 64 (I-64) in 1988. Much of the route of the James River and Kanawha Turnpike through West Virginia is today the Midland Trail, a

National Scenic Byway A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for one or more of six "intrinsic qualities": archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic. The program was established by Co ...

, and is signed as U.S. Route 60 (US 60). Ironically, while the historic road was long a turnpike financed through collection of tolls, today it is a toll-free favorite of shunpikers seeking either an avoidance of tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike, a scenic and bucolic interlude, or both.

Sources

* * {{cite book , author=Dunaway, Wayland Fuller , title=History of the James River and Kanawha Company , url=https://archive.org/details/historyjamesriv00dunagoog , location=

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, publisher= Columbia University , year=1922 Turnpikes in Virginia Turnpikes in West Virginia U.S. Route 60 Interstate 64