The Snicker's Gap Turnpike was a
turnpike road in the
northern part of the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. Part of it is now maintained as
State Route 7
The following highways are numbered 7. For roads numbered A7, see list of A7 roads.
Route 7, or Highway 7, may refer to:
International
* AH7, Asian Highway 7
* European route E07
* European route E007
Afghanistan
*Kunduz-Khomri Highway (A7)
...
, a primary
state highway, but the road between
Aldie and
Bluemont
Bluemont is an unincorporated village in Loudoun County, Virginia located at the eastern base of Snickers Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The village's center is located along Snickersville Turnpike ( Virginia Route 734), west of the incor ...
(formerly Snickerville) in
Loudoun County
Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun C ...
, via
Mountville,
Philomont, and
Airmont, is a rural
Virginia Byway
A Virginia Byway is a scenic road designated by the Commonwealth of Virginia as one that can introduce tourists to alternative destinations. According to the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), there are over of scenic roads in Virgini ...
known as Snickersville Turnpike (State Route 734), and includes the about 180-year-old Hibbs Bridge over Beaverdam Creek (a tributary of
Goose Creek). This turnpike replaced, in part, the first
toll road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically ...
in the United States, which consisted of two roads from
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
northwest into the
Shenandoah Valley.
History
In the late 18th century, there were two roads over the
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsy ...
between
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
and
Winchester, crossing at
Snickers Gap
Snickers Gap, originally William's Gap, is a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountain on the border of Loudoun County and Clarke County in Virginia. The gap is traversed by Virginia State Route 7. The Appalachian Trail also passes across the gap. ...
(now along
State Route 7
The following highways are numbered 7. For roads numbered A7, see list of A7 roads.
Route 7, or Highway 7, may refer to:
International
* AH7, Asian Highway 7
* European route E07
* European route E007
Afghanistan
*Kunduz-Khomri Highway (A7)
...
) and
Keyes Gap
Keyes Gap or Keyes' Gap is a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountain on the border of Loudoun County, Virginia and Jefferson County, West Virginia. The gap is traversed by Virginia State Route 9/ West Virginia Route 9. The Appalachian Trail also ...
(
State Route 9). The
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 16 ...
, in 1785, passed a law appointing nine commissioners (a non-profit
turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. At the peak, in the 1830s, ...
) and instructing them "to erect, or cause to be set up and erected, one or more gates or turnpikes across the roads, or any of them, leading into the town of Alexandria from Snigger's
nickersand Vesta's
eyes
Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and con ...
Gaps". This was not the first law authorizing a toll road in the United States, but was the first recorded turnpike in operation, opening by the end of 1786.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
, who was at least a moral backer of the enterprise, pronounced it a success. A 1793 for sale advertisement referred to one of the two roads as "the Turnpike Road, down which all the wheat, from an extensive and fertile Country, intended for the Alexandria Market, is conveyed".
[Frederic James Wood]
The Turnpikes of New England and Evolution of the Same Through England, Virginia, and Maryland
1919, pp. 7-8
However, the lack of maintenance caused by low tolls led to the wearing out of the southern route. The
Little River Turnpike
State Route 236 (SR 236) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs from U.S. Route 29 and US 50 in Fairfax east to SR 400 in Alexandria. SR 236 is a major suburban arterial highway that connects the inde ...
, a private
corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...
chartered in 1802, realigned and improved the portion between Alexandria and
Aldie.
[ A similar charter for the northern route east of Leesburg was assigned to the ]Leesburg Turnpike
Virginia State Route 7 (VA 7) is a major primary state highway and busy commuter route in northern Virginia, United States. It travels southeast from downtown Winchester to SR 400 (Washington Street) in downtown Alexandria. Its ...
in 1809, and in 1810 the Snicker's Gap Turnpike Company obtained a charter for the road from Aldie northwest over Snickers Gap and beyond to the Shenandoah River at Snicker's Ferry.[Steve Twomey, A Bridge to the Past, for the Asking, ]The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
, September 24, 1992, p. B1 (The Berryville Turnpike later improved the road beyond the Shenandoah to Winchester.) When completed, the turnpike had three toll gates over a distance of about 17.5 miles (28 km).
The turnpike company continued to operate - at least over the gap - as late as 1915,[Snickersville Turnpike Association]
The Byway
accessed July 6, 2007 and the road later became part of the state highway system - State Route 7
The following highways are numbered 7. For roads numbered A7, see list of A7 roads.
Route 7, or Highway 7, may refer to:
International
* AH7, Asian Highway 7
* European route E07
* European route E007
Afghanistan
*Kunduz-Khomri Highway (A7)
...
over the Blue Ridge Mountains west of Bluemont, and secondary State Route 734 between Bluemont and Aldie. The state had plans to transfer SR 734 to the primary system as part of State Route 234, renumbering the short State Route 245 spurring off SR 7 at Bluemont as a portion of SR 234 in the 1940 renumbering, but instead transferred this short stub (Clayton Hall Road) to the secondary system in 1943 due to low traffic.
Current status
The road between Aldie and Bluemont
Bluemont is an unincorporated village in Loudoun County, Virginia located at the eastern base of Snickers Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The village's center is located along Snickersville Turnpike ( Virginia Route 734), west of the incor ...
, now known as Snickersville Turnpike (after the former name of Bluemont) remains a rural road, designated as a Virginia Byway
A Virginia Byway is a scenic road designated by the Commonwealth of Virginia as one that can introduce tourists to alternative destinations. According to the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), there are over of scenic roads in Virgini ...
by the General Assembly in 1988.[ It was listed on the ]National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 2022.
Hibbs Bridge
The long by wide (38 m by 7 m) stone double- arch Hibbs Bridge () over Beaverdam Creek between Mountville and Philomont, built ca. 1829, is in poor condition, but has not been bypassed due to local opposition. The bridge, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 2011, is named after the Hibbs Family that operated mill
Mill may refer to:
Science and technology
*
* Mill (grinding)
* Milling (machining)
* Millwork
* Textile mill
* Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel
* List of types of mill
* Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...
s nearby, and has a posted — but often ignored — weight limit of 6 tons (5 metric tons).[
The Snickersville Turnpike Association, organized to prevent the replacing of the bridge, has more recently opposed other developments such as cellular towers, in addition to continuing to participate in matters related to the bridge.
The ]Virginia Department of Transportation
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is the agency of the state government responsible for transportation in the state of Virginia in the United States. VDOT is headquartered at the Virginia Department of Highways Building in downtown ...
temporarily closed the bridge on May 24, 2007 for a more than nine month rebuilding. The deteriorated mortar, and some of the stones, were replaced, and the approaches were rebuilt, however the bridge remains in its original state.[MJ McAteer]
Bridge Rebirth Takes More Than 9 Months
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', June 28, 2007, p. LZ1
See also
;Other early U.S. turnpikes
* Mohegan Road and Greenwich Road (1792, Connecticut)
*Turnpike roads in Baltimore County
Turnpike often refers to:
* A type of gate, another word for a turnstile
* In the United States, a toll road
Turnpike may also refer to:
Roads United Kingdom
* A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...
(1793, Maryland)
*Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike
The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, first used in 1795, is the first long-distance paved road built in the United States, according to engineered plans and specifications. It links Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia at 34th Street, st ...
(1794, Pennsylvania)
*
References
External links
Snickersville Turnpike Association
{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
Turnpikes in Virginia
Transportation in Loudoun County, Virginia
Transportation in Clarke County, Virginia
Virginia Byways