Originally an Iroquois hunting trail, this route had become by 1786 the first recorded operating turnpike in America and was praised by Thomas Jefferson. In 1810 the Virginia Assembly chartered the Snickers Gap Turnpike Company, authorizing three toll gates between Aldie and Snickers Gap, with charges including 3 cents for a horse, 12½ cents for 20 cattle, and 12½ cents for a four-wheel carriage. A toll booth operated on the Blue Ridge Mountain until 1915. Today the turnpike is a Virginia Byway overlooking the same landscape George Washington traveled between 1748 and 1788, often stopping at West's Ordinary near Aldie and Edward Snickers' inn and ferry on the Shenandoah River.