Completed in 1838 between Winchester and Parkersburg, the Northwestern Virginia Turnpike followed a superb line over the mountains as planned and laid out by Virginia’s chief engineer, Claudius Crozet. The National Road from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling opened in 1818, while the James River & Kanawha Turnpike was completed in 1832 from Greenbrier County to the mouth of the Big Sandy River. In reality, few stockholders expected to make money (and few did), as most settled instead for the indirect benefits of having a road linking them with outside markets.īy 1850, West Virginia had dozens of turnpikes of varying width, length, and construction, and four principal east-west routes. Varying rates of tolls were assessed, based on the size of vehicles or the number of livestock being driven, with the charges used to defray maintenance costs and, in some cases, turn a profit for investors.
Under the board’s authority, the state financed 40 percent to 60 percent of the cost for turnpikes, and private stockholders paid the rest. The Virginia General Assembly in 1816 passed an act to establish an internal improvement fund and a Board of Public Works to charter turnpike companies. After Congress failed to adopt it, individual states assumed responsibility for their own transportation improvements. Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin outlined a national transportation plan featuring turnpikes, canals, and river improvements. Although public officials recognized the need for comprehensive internal improvements, poor construction techniques and difficult terrain made for slow and treacherous overland travel. The Virginia legislature authorized a series of roads in the 1780s, but most were neither paved nor maintained. Few reliable overland routes reached into the mountains of Western Virginia at the close of the Revolutionary era.
0 kommentar(er)
