Fairfax County Road Orders, 1749-1800

Fairfax County Road Orders 1749-1800 is a cooperative project of the Fairfax County History Commission and the Virginia Transportation Research Council. This volume covers the surviving northern Virginia transportation records for the last half of the 18th century and includes most of the earliest surviving transportation-related records for that area. It is the fourth volume of road orders produced cooperatively by a private group and the Virginia Transportation Research Council, following similar projects with the Orange County Historical Society (which sponsored the production of Orange County Road Orders 1734-1749 and Orange County Road Orders 1750-1800) and the Culpeper County Historical Society (which sponsored Culpeper County Road Orders 1763-1764). A copy of Orange’s first volume came by chance into the hands of Donie Rieger (Mrs. Charles Rieger), then serving as a member of the Fairfax County History Commission. After examining it, reading the introductory sketch, and discussing it with other members of the commission, she decided to contact the Research Council about a similar effort for Fairfax County’s early road orders. Accordingly, a meeting was arranged with members of the Fairfax County History Commission to discuss what would be necessary to undertake such an effort in that area. An agreement was concluded similar to that with the Orange County Historical Society by which the Research Council would provide secretarial, editing, and publishing services and the Fairfax County History Commission would sponsor Beth Mitchell, a researcher with extensive knowledge of Northern Virginia history, to do the actual research, transcription, and checking of the final draft. This publication is the result. The road orders contained within this volume constitute a large portion of the surviving 18th century transportation record for Northern Virginia. At its creation from Prince William County in 1742, Fairfax County included within its territory the present-day counties of Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun. Loudoun County was created from the western portion of Fairfax in 1757. Initially the boundary line between Fairfax and Loudoun counties ran along Difficult Run; the present boundary line is the result of a 1798 boundary adjustment between the two counties. Fairfax reached its present boundaries with the transfer of the northeastern section of the county to the District of Columbia in 1801 (this area was later ceded back to Virginia and became Alexandria County in 1847; it was renamed Arlington County in 1920). This publication marks the twenty-first entry in the Historic Roads of Virginia series, first initiated by the Virginia Transportation Research Council (then the Virginia Highway & Transportation Research Council) in 1973.

• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/19605
• Corporate Authors:

  Virginia Transportation Research Council

  530 Edgemont Road
  Charlottesville, VA  United States  22903
• Authors:
  • Mitchell, Beth
• Publication Date: 2003-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Pagination: 326p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data collection; History; Records management; Roads
• Uncontrolled Terms: Boundaries (Geography); Road orders
• Geographic Terms: Alexandria (Virginia); Arlington County (Virginia); Culpeper (Virginia); Fairfax County (Virginia); Loudoun County (Virginia); Orange County (Virginia); Prince William County (Virginia)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; History; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01342789
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: VTRC 03-R19
• Files: NTL, TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jun 23 2011 9:07AM