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The Fincastle Turnpike, also known as the "Fincastle and Blue Ridge Turnpike Company", was approved in 1834 by the Virginia General Assembly to maintain a toll turnpike that followed part of the Wilderness Road from Fincastle, Virginia, to the Cumberland Gap. The Fincastle Turnpike also connected Narrows, Virginia and Tazewell, Virginia along the way to the Cumberland Gap, following roughly what is today parts of Virginia State Route 42 and Virginia State Route 61. ==Toll road== With the increase in commerce during the 1830s, Virginia increased the length and number of roads and turnpikes in the state. The Fincastle Turnpike was envisioned to assist commerce between the far southwestern parts of the state that were partially isolated due to difficult road conditions. In order to keep costs low, each county that the Fincastle Turnpike passed through was responsible for maintaining and improving their section. The turnpike passed through Botetourt County, Craig County, Virginia, Giles County, Virginia, Bland County, Virginia, Tazewell County, Virginia, Russell County, Virginia and then rejoined the Wilderness Road in Scott County, Virginia and Lee County, Virginia. Improvements were not only applied to the road, but to ordinaries and inns along the turnpike as well. In Botetourt County, an account along the route states: "The Fincastle-Blue Ridge Turnpike was completed in 1835, connecting to the Lynchburg-Salem Turnpike over the mountain through Black Horse Gap. Joseph and Polly operated the White Horse Stagecoach Inn on their farm, housing and feeding many Turnpike travelers."〔(" A Place Apart; A Place of Transformation: A not-so-brief history of Camp Bethel, pre-and-post 1927." )〕 The turnpike was over 248 miles long, and the basic improvements were not completed until 1841. The entire length of the wagon turnpike was to have a standard width of at least eighteen feet, with the center of the road at least eighteen inches higher than either side along the horizontal line, allowing for the runoff of rain and snow. Soft spots in the roadbed could not exceed 5% of the length of each section. The Commonwealth retained $2,752.00 worth of stock in the Fincastle And Blue Ridge Turnpike Company.〔("Funds and Resources of the Commonwealth." ) Annual Reports of Officers, Boards, and Institutions of the Commonwealth of Virginia, for the Year Ending September 30, 1849. Doc. No. 5, page 5.〕 Until the 1850s, in Tazewell County, Virginia, the Fincastle Turnpike was the principal thoroughfare used by the farmers for sending their products to the eastern markets. Everything purchased in the eastern counties for consumption in Tazewell were sent there over the turnpike. Cattle droves in the thousands were herded up and down the turnpike as the farmers sent their cattle to market in eastern and northern Virginia.〔Pendleton, William C. 1920. (History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia: 1748-1920. ) Page 534.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fincastle Turnpike」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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