Snicker's Gap Turnpike

Infobox road
state=VA
type=secondary
route=734
alternate_name=Snickersville Turnpike
length_mi=15.00
length_ref=PDFlink| [http://www.virginiadot.org/info/resources/AADT_053_Loudoun_2005.pdf 2005 Virginia Department of Transportation Jurisdiction Report - Daily Traffic Volume Estimates - Loudoun County] |634 KiB ]
length_round=2
length_notes=(the old turnpike continued about 3 mi (5 km) from the north end)
direction_a=South
direction_b=North
starting_terminus=
junction=
ending_terminus=The Snicker's Gap Turnpike was a turnpike road in the northern part of the U.S. state of Virginia. Part of it is now maintained as State Route 7, a primary state highway, but the road between Aldie and Bluemont (formerly Snickerville) in Loudoun County, via Mountville, Philomont, and Airmont, is a rural Virginia Byway 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 in the United States, which consisted of two roads from Alexandria northwest into the Shenandoah Mountains.

History

In the late 18th century, there were two roads over the Shenandoah Mountains between Alexandria and Winchester, crossing the Shenandoahs at Snickers Gap (now along State Route 7) and Keys Gap (State Route 9). [Thomas Jefferys, 1776, 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". [Alice Morse Earle, [http://books.google.com/books?id=flwEAAAAMAAJ Stage-coach and Tavern Days] , 1900, p. 232] [J. R. Dolan, The Yankee Peddlers of Early America, 1964, p. 41] Frederic James Wood, [http://books.google.com/books?id=tjsBAAAAYAAJ 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, a private corporation 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 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, 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). [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=XpUAAAAAMAAJ Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Public Works to the General Assembly of Virginia] , 1851, p. 95]

The turnpike company continued to operate - at least over the gap - as late as 1915,Snickersville Turnpike Association, [http://www.snickersvilleturnpike.org/byway.htm The Byway] , accessed July 6, 2007] and the road later became part of the state highway system - State Route 7 over the Shenandoah 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, [CTB minutes|10-1940-01, p. 15] but instead transferred this short stub (Clayton Hall Road) to the secondary system in 1943 due to low traffic. [CTB minutes|05-1943-01, p. 23]

Current status

The road between Aldie and Bluemont, now known as Snickersville Turnpike after the former name of Bluemont, remains a rural road, designated as a Virginia Byway by the General Assembly in 1988. The 124 foot long by 22 foot wide (38 m by 7 m) stone double-arch Hibbs Bridge (coord|39.037332|N|77.72303|W) 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 is named after the Hibbs Family that operated mills nearby, and has a posted - but often ignored - weight limit of 6 tons (5 metric tons). [Virginia Department of Transportation, PDFlink| [http://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_reports/pdf/01-r11.pdf Final Report: A Management Plan for Historic Bridges in Virginia] |1.27 MiB , January 2001] The Snickersville Turnpike Association, organized to prevent the replacing of the bridge, has more recently opposed other developments such as cellular towers, [Michael Laris, Board Rejects Cellular Tower, The Washington Post, March 8, 2001, p T1] in addition to continuing to participate in matters related to the bridge.

The Virginia Department of Transportation temporarily closed the bridge on May 24, 2007 for a more than nine month rebuilding. The deteriorated mortar, and some of the stones, are being replaced, and the approaches are being rebuilt, but the bridge will remain in its original state. [MJ McAteer, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062700025.html?tid=informbox Bridge Rebirth Takes More Than 9 Months] , The Washington Post, June 28, 2007, p. LZ1]

Newspapers

* [http://www.purcellvillegazette.com Purcellville Gazette Newspaper - along Snickersville Turnpike weekly]

ee also

;Other early U.S. turnpikes
*Mohegan Road and Greenwich Road (1792, Connecticut)
*Turnpike roads in Baltimore County (1793, Maryland)
*Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike (1794, Pennsylvania)

References

External links

* [http://www.snickersvilleturnpike.org/ Snickersville Turnpike Association]