Clarke's Gap, also known as Clarks Gap, is a
pass through
Catoctin Mountain
Catoctin Mountain, along with the geologically associated Bull Run Mountains, forms the easternmost mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are in turn a part of the Appalachian Mountains range. The ridge runs northeast–southwest for ...
west of
Leesburg, Virginia
Leesburg is a town in the state of Virginia, and the county seat of Loudoun County, Virginia, Loudoun County. Settlement in the area began around 1740, which is named for the Lee family, early leaders of the town and ancestors of Robert E. Lee. Lo ...
. The gap has an elevation of . The gap is not a true
wind gap
A wind gap (or air gap) is a gap through which a waterway once flowed that is now dry as a result of stream capture. A water gap is a similar feature, but one in which a waterway still flows. Water gaps and wind gaps often provide routes which ...
, but rather a man-made railroad cut through a local
saddle point between two ridges to the southeast and northwest created by the drainage of
Dry Mill Branch
Dry or dryness most often refers to:
* Lack of rainfall, which may refer to
**Arid regions
**Drought
* Dry or dry area, relating to legal prohibition of selling, serving, or imbibing alcoholic beverages
* Dry humor, deadpan
* Dryness (medical)
* ...
of
Tuscarora Creek to the east and an unnamed tributary of
Catoctin Creek to the west.
The original road 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, Alexandr ...
and
Winchester, known as Vestal's Gap or Braddock's Road passed through the gap beginning in the middle 18th century. Later, in the 1860s the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad, predecessor of the
Washington and Old Dominion Railroad was routed through the gap. The railroad christened the gap when it established a station there, naming it after a nearby landowner, Addison H. Clarke. Today, Dry Mill Road (Virginia State Route 699 (VA Route 699)) and the
Washington and Old Dominion Trail still pass through the gap.
VA Route 7 and
VA Route 9 pass just to the north of the gap, through a man-made highway cut, which 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 downto ...
has mistakenly signed as "Clarks Gap".
References
*Scheel, Eugene. ''Loudoun Discovered:Communities, Corners and Crossroads.'' Vol. 4. 2002, pp. 1–3.
{{Gaps of the Appalachian Mountains
Landforms of Loudoun County, Virginia
Wind gaps of Virginia