Snickersville Turnpike

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 and authorized three toll gates between Aldie and Snickers Gap, with charges including 3 cents for a horse, 12 1/2 cents for 20 cattle, and 12 1/2 cents for a four-wheel carriage. A toll booth operated on the Blue Ridge Mountain until 1915. Today the road 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.

Virginia · United States