Road to the Valley

E-54

By the first quarter of the 1700s, revisions to the road laws in the colony mandated more convenient travel routes over land. In conjunction with new settlement pushing west through the Piedmont region to the Blue Ridge, a series of old Indian trails and new roadways slowly became interconnected and developed into a regional transportation system. Construction began about 1731, and by 1759 this road extended northwest through Prince William County from Dumfries and crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains via Ashby's Gap. Portions of this early route correspond to sections of present-day Route 234 (Dumfries Road) and Route 619.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Christopher Colles, Survey of the Roads of the United States of America, 1789 (Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961), 183-184 [Note focuses on North/South roads]; De Leuw, Cather & Company, “Data Recovery Excavations at Site 44PW855, Town of Dumfries, Prince William County, Virginia U.S. Route 1/Possum Point Road,” July 1999; Fairfax Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William County: A Study of Origins in Northern Virginia (1924; Baltimore, Md.: Gateway Press, Inc., 1987), 466-470; Nathaniel Mason Pawlett, "A Brief History of the Roads of Virginia 1607-1840”, Charlottesville, Virginia October 1977: revised November 2003. Report to Virginia Highway and Transportation Research Council (A Cooperative Organization Sponsored Jointly by the Virginia Department of Transportation and the University of Virginia) VHTRC 78-R16; E.H.T. Traceries, Inc., “Cultural Resources Inventory of Pohick Bay Regional Park, Fairfax County Virginia- draft” February 29, 2000. Northern Regional Park Authority; Workers of the Works Projects Administration in the State of Virginia, Prince William, the story of its people and its places (Richmond: Whittet & Shepperson, 1941), 68-70.