From Indian Path to Highway

In 1664, a colonial road here probably followed the trace of an old Indian path. Two years later, the road was extended to Aquia Creek. It became a post road in 1750, and in Sept. 1781 Gen. George Washington passed over it on the march to Yorktown. By 1900, a crude dirt road followed this route. The 1914 American Automobile Association Blue Book described it as mostly "very poor and dangerous; should not be attempted except in dry weather." By 1925, auto camps and cabins, the predecessors of auto courts and motels, stood at frequent intervals along present-day U.S. Route 1 between Washington, D.C., and Richmond.