The Blue Ridge Turnpike, completed in 1853, ran for 56 miles from the vicinity of New Market to the railhead in Gordonsville, crossing the mountains at Fishers Gap and linking the Shenandoah Valley to markets in the east. The Blue Ridge Turnpike Company financed the $176,000 project by selling shares of stock to individuals and to the Commonwealth of Virginia. After the road sustained heavy damage during the Civil War, the company abandoned it, and counties along the route took over maintenance about 1870. Traces of the original alignment remain along State Routes 231 and 670 and within Shenandoah National Park.