Gil Finn
Your posts don't tell us where you are located, so I have no clue where the weather is only ggod for ducks. quote]
Check out the weather channle, it shows where it rains everyday.sign1
Just kidding, I am in the midAtlantiv area, beyoung the mountains.
Morgans Landing, W Va along the old James and Kanawha Turnpike.
James River and Kanawha Turnpike
The
James River and Kanawha Turnpike was built to facilitate portage of shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western reaches of the
James River via the
James River and Kanawha Canal and the eastern reaches of the
Kanawha River.
Originally proposed by a young
George Washington in his surveyor days prior to the
American Revolution, the canal and turnpike combination was seen as the key for
Virginia to compete with northern states for rich trade to the west. However, the canal portion was an expensive project which failed several times financially, was frequently damaged by floods, and was never fully completed, although sections served for many years. It was largely financed by the
Virginia Board of Public Works. After the
American Civil War, when funds for continued financial help were not available from the worn-torn state or private sources. In 1871,
Collis P. Huntington completed the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) from the
head of navigation at
Richmond, Virginia to the
Ohio River at
Huntington, West Virginia (named in his honor), and the canal finally succumbed to the competition and the advancing transportation technology of the railroads. In the 1880s, the canal was bought and dismantled by one of the railroads, which built along the towpath and soon became part of the C & O.
The Turnpike portion of the combination envisioned by Washington remained a major roadway much longer, and was only supplanted by the completion of
Interstate 64 in West Virginia in 1988. Much of the route of the James River and Kanawha Turnpike through
West Virginia is today the
Midland Trail, a
National Scenic Byway, and is signed as
U.S. Route 60. Ironically, while the historic road was long a
turnpike financed through collection of tolls, today it is a toll-free favorite of
shunpikers seeking either an avoidance of tolls on the
West Virginia Turnpike, a scenic and bucolic interlude, or both.
