# Snicker's Gap Turnpike

The ‘’‘Snickersville Turnpike’’’ (formerly known as the ‘’‘Snicker’s Gap Turnpike’’’) is a historic road in the northern part of the U.S. state of Virginia. While part of the original route is now maintained as State Route 7, a primary state highway, the section between Aldie and Bluemont (formerly Snickerville) in Loudoun County, via Mountville, Philomont, and Airmont, remains a rural Virginia Byway designated as ‘’‘State Route 734’’’. This stretch includes the approximately 180-year-old ‘’‘Hibbs Bridge’’’ over Beaverdam Creek (a tributary of Goose Creek). The turnpike is notable for having replaced, in part, the first toll road in the United States, which originally consisted of two roads from Alexandria northwest into the Shenandoah Valley.

## History

In the late 18th century, there were two roads over the Blue Ridge Mountains between Alexandria and Winchester, crossing at Snickers Gap (now along State Route 7) and Keyes Gap (State Route 9).Thomas Jefferys, 1776, A Map of the most Inhabited part of Virginia, drawn by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson in 1775, London: Sayer and Bennett The Virginia General Assembly, in 1785, passed a law appointing nine commissioners (a non-profit turnpike trust) and instructing them “to erect, or cause to be set up and erected, one or more gates or turnpikes across the roads, or any of them, leading into the town of Alexandria from Snigger’s [Snickers] and Vesta’s [Keyes] Gaps”. This was not the first law authorizing a toll road in the United States, but was the first recorded turnpike in operation, opening by the end of 1786. Thomas Jefferson, who was at least a moral backer of the enterprise, pronounced it a success. A 1793 for sale advertisement referred to one of the two roads as “the Turnpike Road, down which all the wheat, from an extensive and fertile Country, intended for the Alexandria Market, is conveyed”.Alice Morse Earle, Stage-coach and Tavern Days, 1900, p. 232J. R. Dolan, The Yankee Peddlers of Early America, 1964, p. 41Frederic James Wood, The Turnpikes of New England and Evolution of the Same Through England, Virginia, and Maryland, 1919, pp. 7-8
However, the lack of maintenance caused by low tolls led to the wearing out of the southern route. The Little River Turnpike, a private corporation chartered in 1802, realigned and improved the portion between Alexandria and Aldie. A similar charter for the northern route east of Leesburg was assigned to the Leesburg Turnpike in 1809, and in 1810 the ‘’‘Snicker’s Gap Turnpike Company’’’ obtained a charter for the road from Aldie northwest over Snickers Gap and beyond to the Shenandoah River at Snicker’s Ferry.Steve Twomey, A Bridge to the Past, for the Asking, The Washington Post, September 24, 1992, p. B1 (The Berryville Turnpike later improved the road beyond the Shenandoah to Winchester.) When completed, the turnpike had three toll gates over a distance of about 17.5 miles (28 km).Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Public Works to the General Assembly of Virginia, 1851, p. 95
The turnpike company continued to operate - at least over the gap - as late as 1915,Snickersville Turnpike Association, The Byway, accessed July 6, 2007 and the road later became part of the state highway system - State Route 7 over the Blue Ridge Mountains west of Bluemont, and secondary State Route 734 between Bluemont and Aldie. The state had plans to transfer SR 734 to the primary system as part of State Route 234, renumbering the short State Route 245 spurring off SR 7 at Bluemont as a portion of SR 234 in the 1940 renumbering,State Highway Commission of Virginia (October 10, 1940). "Minutes of Meeting" (PDF) (Report). Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia., p. 15 but instead transferred this short stub (Clayton Hall Road) to the secondary system in 1943 due to low traffic.State Highway Commission of Virginia (May 12, 1943). "Minutes of Meeting" (PDF) (Report). Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia., p. 23

## Current status

The road between Aldie and Bluemont, now known as Snickersville Turnpike (formerly the Snicker’s Gap Turnpike), remains a rural road and has been designated as a Virginia Byway by the General Assembly in 1988. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022."Weekly listing". National Park Service.

### Hibbs Bridge

The 124-foot (38 m) long by 22-foot (6.7 m) wide (38 m by 7 m) stone double-arch Hibbs Bridge (39°02′14″N 77°43′23″W﻿ / ﻿39.037332°N 77.72303°W﻿ / 39.037332; -77.72303) over Beaverdam Creek between Mountville and Philomont, built ca. 1829, is in poor condition, but has not been bypassed due to local opposition. The bridge, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011, is named after the Hibbs Family that operated mills nearby, and has a posted — but often ignored — weight limit of 6 tons (5 metric tons).Virginia Department of Transportation, "Final Report: A Management Plan for Historic Bridges in Virginia" (PDF). (1.27 MiB), January 2001
The Snickersville Turnpike Association, organized to prevent the replacing of the bridge, has more recently opposed other developments such as cellular towers,Michael Laris, Board Rejects Cellular Tower, ‘’The Washington Post’’, March 8, 2001, p T1 in addition to continuing to participate in matters related to the bridge.
The Virginia Department of Transportation temporarily closed the bridge on May 24, 2007 for a more than nine month rebuilding. The deteriorated mortar, and some of the stones, were replaced, and the approaches were rebuilt, however the bridge remains in its original state.MJ McAteer, Bridge Rebirth Takes More Than 9 Months, ‘’The Washington Post’’, June 28, 2007, p. LZ1