Misplaced Pages

Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
United States historic place
Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike, Bulltown WV, August 2006
Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike is located in West VirginiaWeston and Gauley Bridge TurnpikeShow map of West VirginiaWeston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike is located in the United StatesWeston and Gauley Bridge TurnpikeShow map of the United States
LocationSection between Stonewall Jackson Lake and Burnsville Lake, Burnsville, West Virginia
Coordinates38°49′39″N 80°32′7″W / 38.82750°N 80.53528°W / 38.82750; -80.53528
Area27 acres (11 ha)
Built1861
NRHP reference No.98001430
Added to NRHPJanuary 28, 1999

Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike is a segment of a historic turnpike and hiking trail located at Burnsville, Braxton County, West Virginia. It is a 10 mile long section of trail, approximately 20 feet in width, with an unpaved surface. It is administered by the Army Corps of Engineers. The route was built starting in 1847 to provide access to Sutton for transport of product to grist mills and sawmills, access to the Bulltown sawmills and salt works, and farmland in Lewis, Braxton, and Nicholas counties. During the American Civil War, the turnpike was used in 1861 by Union troops to move to take control of western Virginia. It was also critical in the movement of troops during the Battle of Bulltown on October 13, 1863.

The turnpike was one of the first in Virginia to run in a north-south orientation. It was originally proposed to link the Northwestern Turnpike to the Parkersburg-Staunton turnpike. The construction, funded partly by the selling of stock, was delayed by multiple instances of mismanagement and conflicts of interest.

The largest bridge on the turnpike, crossing the Elk River at Sutton, was a cable suspension bridge that spanned 460 feet and was completed before 1857.

Large sections of the original turnpike were incorporated into the building of US Route 19 in the 1920's. However, much of the modern highway is located in the bottoms of valleys and no longer follows the old alignments along the ridge tops. Thus, much of the bypassed section remains in essentially original condition

The preserved 10 mile long segment was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "WGBTP Trail Brochure" (PDF). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Huntington District. April 5, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
  3. Paige Cruz (February 1998). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike" (PDF). State of West Virginia, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2011-06-02.
  4. ^ Kemp, E. L. (May 9, 1980). "Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on June 1, 2022.
U.S. National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia
Topics

Lists by
county
Other lists


This article about a property in Braxton County, West Virginia on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories:
Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike Add topic