Photo/artwork by Leonard Shapiro
The Ashby Gap Turnpike Takes A Toll
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By Childs Burden
oday we know the Ashby Gap Turnpike as Route 50 or The John Mosby Highway. Most who travel along this old roadbed probably do not reflect long upon its proud history. We should. Middleburg’s main street is The Ashby Gap Turnpike. Middleburg’s descriptive name comes from the fact that the town lies half-way between the important port city of Alexandria and Winchester. It also lies half-way between the county seats of Loudoun and Fauquier and also happens to be mid-way between the Bull Run and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Concerns over the dreadful condition of the road system came to a head during the latter part of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. It was a time when many of the Tidewater Virginians were moving up to establish farms in our area. It also was the time when a migration of the Scott, Irish and German people were moving down into the Shenandoah Valley to settle that fertile region, only recently made safe after several Indian treaties had been consummated.
Something had to be done but where was the money coming from?
Bluemont) where a second Shenandoah ferry crossing could be made.
The answer came in the form of private turnpike companies that were sanctioned by the Commonwealth General Assembly toward the end of the 1700s.
Two of the old toll houses can still be seen today at Aldie and Middleburg—the former just east of the Snickersville turn and the latter where the Upper Crust Bakery stands today. The little toll houses and the swivel gates that could be raised and lowered to halt and pass the traffic were dotted along the Ashby Gap Turnpike at Aldie, Middleburg, Goose Creek Bridge, Upperville and Paris.
The first effort was the formation of The Little River Turnpike Company formed in 1802. The company’s mission was to build an improved road with proper drainage and reinforced roadbed from Alexandria to the Little River at Aldie—a distance of 34 miles. This improved road would ensure faster and more efficient transportation of both people and agricultural goods. Farmers needed to get their commodities to markets and at the port of Alexandria, they could get the best prices. This private company sold stock to raise enough capital that would enable construction and management of the road. However, to keep the turnpike in good condition, a string of toll houses were built along the way every five to ten miles. In theory, money not needed to maintain the road would be returned to the investors as dividends.
The old road systems coming out of the ports of Alexandria and Georgetown and heading west over the Blue Ridge were really old Indian trails that the Native Americans had been using for thousands of years for the purposes of trading and hunting.
The Little River Turnpike was completed by 1812, but two years earlier the General Assembly sanctioned The Ashby Gap Turnpike Company to continue the road improvement project from Aldie to the Shenandoah River where there was a ferry crossing. That effort was essentially complete by 1816.
The old trails, turned into crude roads, were not going to be sufficient to handle the increasing traffic of new arrivals with their heavy wagon loads.
The Snickersville Turnpike Company was also sanctioned at that time to take people and goods northwest from Aldie to Snickersville (now
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Go Green Middleburg | Spring 2020
The toll house at Goose Creek Bridge posted rates of three cents for a horse, six cents for a riding cart, twelve cents for a carriage and from three to seven cents for a wagon depending upon the width of its wheels. Drovers paid six cents for a score of hogs or sheep and twelve cents for a score of cattle. While driving along the Ashby Gap Turnpike today, take a moment and stop by the Goose Creek Bridge now owned by Nova Parks. It’s a battlefield where federal cavalry and infantry made a contested crossing on June 21, 1863. Tremendous credit must be given to the women of the Fauquier Loudoun Garden Club who preserved and protected the historic bridge for over 40 years. The garden club recently sold the site to The Civil War Trust, which transferred it to Nova Parks, with many other wonderful historic properties in our area. Walk along the bridge that carried motorized traffic until 1957, and consider the effort to build that beautiful structure—the last four-arched stone bridge left in Virginia. And check your pocket for loose change; the toll-keeper reportedly still haunts the place.
