Evening star., 1927-05-29
$3,60D,0DO HIGHWAY
TO RICHMOND OPEN
CoIorful Pageantry Attends
Ceremony-BYd Sees Link
of Unity Forged.
By a Staff Correspondent of The Star.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. May %.
With pageantry, military fanfare
and oratory, Virginia today dedicated
a link Of concrete joining the North
and the South and thus opened to the
Nation the final stretch of the Jeffer-
son Davis Highway connecting the
Capital of the Republic with the one.
time Capital Of the Confederacy.
THE road 10 of Importance to the
country as a whole" declared Gov.
Byrd of Virginia in opening the for.
NAL celebration at the fair grounds
here, "for 1t Is both another bond Of
union between the North and the
South and broad avenue through
miles Of the history that every good
American must know.
1.-The American mind is turning
with new interest to the examination
Of our history. Once you have read
about Washington, Marshall. Jeffer.
son. Henry, Madison, Mason, Lee and
Jackson, you are anxious to make
pilgrimage to their homes and the
scenes Of their work. And so the
tourists are coming to Virginia, and
we must not only give them roads
to our historic shrines, but we must
mark these shrines plainly. briefly
and accurately.
Gov. Byrd Presides.
'On this occasion of rejoicing that
another link is forged that binds Vir-
ginia to the Nation, I say to all
America: Come you down to Old Vir-
ginia; see where men lived, labored
and died for political principles, and
then you will be quicker yourselves
to protect and defend a Government
born Of so much high labor, noble
sacrifice and exalted love of country"
Gov. Byrd presided over the cere-
monies earlier in the day, when blue
and gray ribbons stretched across the
road near old Pohick Church were
cut In symbolic removal Of the last
barrier to traffic, and over the elabo.
rate and colorful exercises in the
afternoon at a specially constructed
reviewing stand in the fair grounds.
termination point of the picturesque
historical pageant.
Other speakers were former Gov.
E. Lee Trinkle, Senator Swanson,
Henry G. Shirley, Virginia State high.
way commissioner; st. Julian Wilson,
assistant United States commissioner
of roads; former State Senator G..
O'Connor Goolrick, George P. Cole
man, former State highway commits
sioner; DIR. j. Farnet King, mayor of
Fredericksburg, and Eppa Hunton,
president of the r., r. & p. Railroad.
Thousands Of Spectators.
The addresses were delivered after
a review of the entire pageant as it
marched from the city streets past
the official party in the reviewing
Thnr1Cordc ~
sembled from all sections of Virginia
joined with the officials in cheering the
costumed ranks of marchers, repre-.
senting every chapter in the history
Of Virginia from the days of the red.
skins to those of the present.
George Washington as a school
boy at Falmouth, just outside of
Fredericksburg; as youthful sur
veyor, as a colonial officer with Gen.
Braddock's expedition, as a general at
Yorktown and as the retiring Presi-
dent of his country was faithfully i'm
personated during the march of the
Is units composing the parade.
The pages of American history were
turned backward as there passed to
tn, tune of inspiring band music such
notables of the hallowed past as Capt.
John Smith, Lord Fairfax, George
Mason, John Randolph, Light Horse
Harry Lee. Patrick Henry, Henry
Clay, John Paul Jones, Lafayette,
Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark,
John Marshall, Andrew jackson and
others whose names are emblazoned in
Virginia's history.
Transportation Evolution.
The evolution of transportation,
from the days of the Indians, when
walking was popular, through the OK
cart and covered wagon era, and on
down to the modern limousine and
the airplane, was enacted for the bene-
fit Of the crowds. Participants in the
pageant came from all parts OF the
commonwealth and the elaborateness
Of their costumes bore evidence to the
pains which had been taken in pro-
pairing for the celebration-the most
ambitious Of its sort ever staged in the
State.
Gov. Byrd announced that after
this Fall the highway just opened
will be completely concreted from the
National Capital to the North Caro-
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