Hibbs Bridge Dedication
On November 16,2007, the "new" Hibbs
Bridge was formally reopened to traffic on
Snickersville Turnpike. Ahead of schedule and
under budget the circa 1828 landmark was
dedicated to the memory of Kathy Mitchell, former
Chairman of the Board of the Snickersville
Turnpike Association and tireless advocate for the
preservation of the bridge.
Blue Ridge Supervisor Jim Burton and
former Supervisor Eleanore Towe handled the
ribbon-cutting honors before a crowd of about 50
area residents on a cold and windy day. The ceremony was a culmination of a 13-year political
and bureaucratic struggle to restore the venerable
old span over Beaverdam Creek.
Following the ceremony, a reception and
celebration was held at Whitestone Farm. After the
champagne was uncorked, local dignitaries, VDOT
officials and contractors were recognized for their
efforts. STA Board member Marvin Watts was
eloquent in recounting the story of Hibbs Bridge,
its historical significance and remarkable rebirth.
What follows are just a few of the excerpts from
his remarks. His full speech from that occasion
can be found at the STA website at www.
snickersvilleturnpike. org.
"At all events Hibbs was a magnet for life, hence a
love for it. Children waded in pools, dogs swam,
and horses drank. A grist mill sprang up and by
1835 a sawmill was added. Stephen and William
Hibbs bought the mills, a dwelling house, and the
land in 1857, whereupon the bridge became known
as Hibbs Romances frequently commenced when
strangers met in stagecoaches on these old
turnpikes, and I think Hibbs, with its sudden rise,
must have given 'lift' to such courting. When I
was first writing about Hibbs in the mid-nineties,
Benny Malloy, a Loudoun native, remembered
growing up with Hibbs Bridge. 'We would get our
driver's license and head for Hibbs at 35 mph.
It was the highlight of our lives.' It seems quite
natural, then, that so many citizens rushed to
defend Hibbs."
"It was a mark of advanced civilizations that
beauty be important in the construction, so the
earliest engineers built structures so they appeared
correct to the eye. The results were more pleasing
in appearance, as with Hibbs, than today's coldly
scientific steel and concrete slabs, which have the
additional flaw of collapsing unexpectedly."
"Hibbs was saved chiefly by the love for it by
ordinary citizens. They loved it not just for its
simplicity and natural beauty, but also its eccentric
hump, democratically available to anyone with a
vehicle. Hibbs has been a part of the fabric of
Loudoun lives for 180 years. So in saving Hibbs,
we prevent that tear in community fabric suffered
whenever an historical or natural feature of our
mutual experience is razed. We thus husband and
protect our own humanity in the interests of
posterity. That's a triumph for all Loudoun
citizens, for all Virginians, including the Virginia
Department of Transportation."
"When you lift your glasses for a toast, lift them to
Hibbs Bridge, good for another 200 years, to the
Loudoun citizens who would not forsake their
bridge, to those instrumental in Hibb's rebirth, and
to lovers young and old who may yet enjoy a little
exhilaration crossing Hibbs."
2007 Bike/ Hike-the-Pike
Sunday, October 14th dawned cool and sunny in
Bluemont, Virginia, a fine day for the Snickersville
Turnpike Association's second annual Bike-Hike-the
Pike.
The event began with morning registration of
hikers and cyclists at the Bluemont Community Center.
Bicyclists departed as a group at 10 a.m. from the
Community Center to take the 10-mile round-trip bike
route from along the state scenic byway Snickersville
Turnpike to its intersection with Colchester Road.
Hikers left shortly thereafter on a three-mile course also
starting at the Bluemont Community Center and
returning about an hour later. The group included
people of all ages and ran the gamut from casual
strollers to serious bikers. Quite a few families
completed the course together. Volunteers from STA
were stationed at intersections along the route to show
the way and help provide a safe biking/hiking
environment.
When the hikers and bikers returned to the
Community Center they were hungry, thirsty and ready
to relax to music provided by Cletus Kennally and Lori
Kelley, talented local singer-songwriters. Hamburgers
and hot dogs were catered by the locally famous Mr. B,
and served with chips and soft drinks. All of this was
provided to participants at no charge by the
Snickersville Turnpike Association.
Those who participated agreed that it was a great
time, a fine autumn day for biking or hiking down the
beautiful and historic Snickersville Turnpike. Plans are
already in the works for a fall 2008 event. If you'd like
to get involved as a volunteer, please contact a Board
member or e-mail info@snickersvilleturnpike.org.
Land Conservation Easement Dinner
Michael Kane, a Land Conservation Officer with the
Piedmont Environmental Council, will present "An
Introduction to Conservation Easements" at Oatlands on April
30th from 6 - 7:30PM, followed by a light supper outside,
weather permitting. STA had agreed to be a sponsor. The cost
will be $10 per person to defray expenses. You are invited.
Cell Tower Dilemma
The April 2002 "Strategic Plan for Wireless
Telecommunications Facilities" is a useful
document for the County planners, but it has a
basic flaw. It offers cell tower companies the
option of proposing high multi-user towers or
single-use 80-foot or less towers. Unfortunately,
once the multi-user tower is approved and built, it
rarely houses more than a single user. In the May
2007 "Supplement", statements are made that gaps
in cell coverage "north of Route 7, Leesburg and
east of Route 621" can be met by 40 to 80 foot "poles", but south of Route 7 and west of Route
621, "many more facilities are needed to provide
wireless service." Again, the flaw is the
assumption that all four of the major cell
companies must have complete coverage in this
rural area and that the County should approve each
tall multi-user tower proposed.
At the February 25, 2008 Transportation
and Land Use Committee meeting, new Board of
Supervisors members questioned each other about
their reasoning behind their vote regarding the six
applications for new cell towers in western
Loudoun. Supervisor Sally Kurtz mentioned the
option of using existing electric distribution poles
in keeping with the Telecommunications Plan to
first use nearby existing structures.
Regarding the status ofNextel's proposed
106-foot pseudo-silo on Watermill Road, the
County is awaiting a response to their January 16,
2008 query for a time extension. Nextel was
observed in January performing tests at the
Philomont Fire Department.
Two different applications are underway on
Cobb House Road, just off Snickersville Turnpike
near Aldie. One is a 140-foot Verizon monopole at
Stonewall Farm Lane, and the other is a 100-foot
monopine by Invisible Towers. The small
antennas recently installed on top of the Bluemont
elevator are believed to be commercial broadband.
Turnpikes and Rustic Roads
In 1785, the Virginia General Assembly
passed a law appointing nine commissioners to a
non-profit turnpike trust and instructed them "to
erect one or more gates or turnpikes across the
roads leading into the town of Alexandria from
Snigger's [Snickers] and Vesta's [Keys] Gaps."
This was not the first law authorizing a toll road in
the United States, but this road was the first
recorded turnpike in operation, opening by the end
of 1786. The Little River Turnpike, a private
corporation chartered in 1802, realigned and
improved the portion between Alexandria and
Aldie. In 1810, the Commonwealth appropriated
$20,000, and the Snickers Gap Turnpike Company
was founded. This "improved" road was
completed in 1818.
A turnpike, or tollgate, is a barrier
preventing passage on a road until a toll is paid. A
tollhouse was originally just the roadside booth,
but later was the nearby house occupied by the toll
keeper. The Snickers Gap Turnpike had at least
three tollhouses. Just recently two hotographs,
taken in 1900, were discovered, showing a horse
and buggy at the Snickers Gap tollgate. The
tollhouse in the photographs is no longer standing
but operated as late as 1915. The tollhouse at the
intersection with Mountville Road is also gone.
However, the tollhouse in Aldie at the intersection
with the Ashby's Gap Turnpike (Route 50) is still
standing, but in deteriorating condition. In 1935,
when VDOT designated it as State Route 734, the
road was renamed the Snickersville Turnpike.
And speaking of roads, Western Loudoun
has many gravel-covered dirt roads. Most drivers
have no idea that the speed limit, almost always
unposted, is 35 MPH on gravel roads.
Representatives of the Beaverdam Creek Historic
Roadways District are working with VDOT to
rectify this and to minimize the occasional
prohibited widening of these roads by grading
equipment.
Virginia's Oldest Agricultural Institute
A mile north of the 1st Massachusetts Civil
War monument on the Snickersville Turnpike is a
picturesque reminder of the first agricultural school
in Virginia and one of the first schools of scientific
agronomy in the United States. The 3 1/2 story
stone and stucco mail building was erected just
prior to its opening in 1854 as the Loudoun
Agricultural and Mechanical Institute. The school,
fronting on Oatlands Road, was once part of Oak
Hill estate of President James Monroe.
The forerunner to the Institute was the
Agricultural Society of Loudoun which was organized in 1842 by prominent Loudoun
landholders and scientists Hyde Benton, Harmon
Bitzer and James Gulick. In later years, the
Agricultural Society of Loudoun also sponsored
the County Fair.
An ad for the Agricultural and Mechanical
Institute in the September 1854 edition of the
Leesburg Washingtonian stated that "thorough
instruction is given in all the branches of
mathematics and science useful to the farmer and
the man of business. The students are made
acquainted with the phenomena of nature, taught
the properties of soils, the requirements of plants,
the composition of minerals, the utility of different
kinds of roads, laws of mechanical forces and
calculations of the cost." Despite its for~ardlooking
approach, the Institute failed to thrive and
closed its doors in 1860.
One of the original founders of the Institute,
Mr. Gulick, continued to be part of the local lore
and landscape. On July 17, 1863, John Singleton
Mosby noted, "it was a very hot day and we
stopped a while to rest under the shade of some
trees and refresh ourselves with some buttermilk at
the house of a farmer named Gulick. Presently we
heard artillery firing over toward Aldie, which
indicated a collision of the enemy's cavalry with
ours. In an instant every man was mounted. From
a commanding position on the mountain, which we
reached in a few minutes, I could see clouds of dust
rising on every road." This was the first day of the
running five day Cavalry Battles of Aldie,
Middleburg and Upperville.
In 1916, the former Agricultural Institute
became the headquarters of the National Beagle
Club, which added a number of rustic-style log
cabins to house their members during the annual
beagle trials.
The Snickersville Turnpike
Association plans to erect a roadside sign on the
Turnpike recognizing the significance of this, the
earliest agricultural school in Virginia.
Learn more about the Snickersville Turnpike
Association's monthly meetings times and days
at: www.snickersvilleturnpike.org
