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Little River Turnpike Bridge

Loudoun County, Virginia

Photos 

Photo taken by Daniel McFarland

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BH Photo #163699

Map 

Description 

The Little River Turnpike Bridge is directly associated with the Little River Turnpike and the "Turnpike Era" in the transportation history of the Commonwealth (Virginia Department of Transportation 1992:5-6). There was considerable interest at the tum of the nineteenth-century in improving Virginia's transportation infrastructure and dozens of private companies were chartered by the General Assembly to construct and maintain turnpikes, canals, and railroads - overseen by the Commonwealth's Board of Public Works (BPW). The Little River Turnpike Company (LRTC) was chartered in 1802 to establish "a Turnpike Road from the intersection of Duke Street in the Town of Alexandria with the southwest line of the District of Columbia to the ford of Little River," a distance of approximately 34 miles (LRTC 1817). The company completed 34 miles of "paved road" by 1811, and in 1817 stated its objective to spend surplus funds on "the reducing of the Hills and erecting permanent Bridges over the streams of water crossing said Road" (LRTC 1817). The Little River Turnpike was a prominent turnpike facility of the nineteenth century and its crossing of the Little River in Loudoun County was an essential part of its function and identity. The turnpike continued in operation as a toll road through 1896, after which it became a free road.While the assets of the LRTC ultimately were transferred to County administration and finally the Commonwealth as Route 50, the Little River Turnpike Bridge at Aldie today constitutes the most prominent surviving element of the turnpike.

Facts 

Overview
Stone arch bridge over Little River on John S. Mosby Highway
Location
Aldie, Loudoun County, Virginia
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1824; rehabilitated 2001
Design
Stone arch
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 30.8 ft.
Total length: 107.9 ft.
Deck width: 19.4 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on April 11, 2014
Also called
Aldie Bridge
John S. Mosby Highway Bridge
Stone Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+38.97500, -77.64000   (decimal degrees)
38°58'30" N, 77°38'24" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
18/271300/4317317 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Middleburg
Average daily traffic (as of 2014)
7,801
Inventory numbers
VA 11117 (Virginia bridge number)
NRHP 14000148 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
Loudoun County Structure No. 1025
BH 33741 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of October 2017)
Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 55.1 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

19th Century (8,679)
Aldie, Virginia (1)
Arch (12,685)
Built 1824 (14)
Built during 1820s (113)
Deck arch (11,920)
Functionally obsolete (5,796)
Loudoun County, Virginia (22)
 NR-listed (3,015)
Open (41,014)
Owned by state (16,592)
Span length 25-50 feet (16,277)
Stone arch (3,296)
Total length 100-125 feet (5,423)
Virginia (1,387)

Update Log 

  • August 9, 2014: Updated by Dave King: Added NRHP info
  • April 25, 2010: New photos from Daniel McFarland

Sources 

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