The Development of Linear Cities

As settlement moved upstream into the Piedmont west of the Fall Line, transportation of crops required new techniques. Along the James River, batteaux were used to ship hogsheads downstream to Richmond. Along the Rappahannock, crops were hauled by wagon or rolled in hogsheads to Fredericksburg. Further north, Dumfries was initially a busy port but Alexandria quickly eclipsed it.

Settlement west of the Fall Line remained highly decentralized, but Fall Line cities developed in the mid-1700's as trans-shipment centers. Goods delivered on roads from the west were transferred to ships that carried tobacco to England. Export crops of corn and wheat were also carried to the Fall Line cities, to be shipped to coastline cities in the northern colonies or to the islands - Bermuda, Jamaica, West Indies. South of Richmond, the fur trade was the initial stimulus for development of a fort on the Appomattox River (as well as early exploration of the Woods or "New" River).

Source: Library of Congress, A map of the United States of America agreeable to the peace of 1783

Alexandria, Occoquan, Dumfries, Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Petersburg all developed as transportation centers initially. They competed with each other to draw the farm trade to their port, increasing the wealth of their merchants at the expense of the adjacent cities.

There was no clear physical advantage for one city to grow faster than another, in terms of deep water harbor or easier access to the "backcountry" west of the Fall Line. It was primarily the energy of the merchants that determined which Fall Line cities would grow, and which would decline. Dumfries and Alexandria were chartered only hours apart, and the streets are laid out in the same pattern with the same names. Alexandria quickly grew into an urban center, while Dumfries was in decline even before erosion silted in the harbor.

Today, Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond, and Baltimore are still engaged in the same competition for trade. Because state and Federal funds are used to dredge channels in the rivers and Chesapeake Bay for ever-larger ships to dock at these port cities, the competition is a political issue as well as an economic decision.

It was the same way 200 years ago, when the state helped finance a series of "internal improvements" designed to increase traffic to port cities in Virginia.

The Alexandria merchants gambled that a well-constructed highway to the interior of the state would be a good economic investment. They financed the Little River Turnpike in 1795 from Alexandria to the base of the Blue Ridge (today's US Route 236-50 to Aldie in Loudoun County). Then they suported extension of the road into the heart of the Shenandoah Valley to Winchester. This intercepted the trade going north, down the valley and across the Potomac to Baltimore and Philadelphia.

The Little River Turnpike was an economic success. Farmers who brought wagonloads of crops to Alexandria docks went home with wagonloads of goods bought from Alexandria merchants. Tolls on the turnpike repaid the investment, so the merchants expanded their reach with additional roads.

The state helped to finance transportation improvements after seeing the success of the Little River Turnpike. The Board of Public Works was finally chartered in 1816, to coordinate the investments. It financed 40-60% of the cost for a wide variety of turnpikes, plank roads, canals, and railroads before the Civil War. After the Erie Canal drew the Ohio River/Great Lakes trade to New York City and it boomed dramatically, other states also invested heavily in efforts to steer trade from the west to their Atlantic port cities.

Alexandria built the Warrenton Turnpike (US Route 29 from Jermantown in Fairfax County to Warrenton in Fauquier County). It intercepted trade that might otherwise have gone to Occoquan or Fredericksburg. [NOTE: in Warrenton, it was known as the Alexandria Turnpike...]

Alexandria also supported the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, seeking to draw the trade from the Ohio River into the Potomac drainage and to their deepwater port. That was a combined investment from the national government, Maryland, Virginia, Georgetown, and Alexandria. All of these communities treated it as an investment for the long-term. They realized that their growth would be one return on their investment, even if tolls were insufficient to repay the bondholders.

An extension of the C&O Canal carried the narrow canal boats on the water-filled Aquduct Bridge. This extension across the Potomac River to Alexandria was built so Georgetown merchants did not get all the business from the canal, and because Georgetown was too shallow for most ocean-going ships. You can still see one abutment of the Aquduct Bridge on the north shore, upstream of the Key Bridge in Georgetown. The locks in Alexandria have also been restored, though now they are surrounded by offices instead of transportation facilities.

In the 1840's, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad extended Alexandria's reach into Culpeper and across the Rapidan to Orange County. The Manassas Gap Railroad drew traffic from the upper Shenandoah Valley to Alexandria. The planned Alexandria, Loudoun, and Hampshire Railroad never reached the valley or the coal fields of Hampshire County (now in West Virginia), but the tracks were built to Purcellville and are the roadbed of the current Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) bike trail.

Alexandria was not the only city seeking to grow through trade. Philadelphia merchants financed the Lancaster Turnpike (today's US Route 340 in Pennsylvania) before the Little River Turnpike was completed. Richmond interests financed the Virginia Central, originally trying to reach Harrisonburg to compete for the agricultural trade in the Shenandoah Valley. They were more successful in pushing the James River and Kanawha Canal upstream and across the Blue Ridge.

And Fredericksburg invested in a canal system up the Rappahannock River, only to see the Orange and Alexandria Railroad cross just upstream at Rappahannock Station (today, Remington in Fauquier County) of their canal terminus. The Fredericksburg canal and turning basin shaped a Civil War battle (Yankee soldiers were constrained to a few crossings of the canal at they attempted to capture Marye's Heights in December, 1862), but failed miserably in the effort to shape the economic landscape of inland trade.

James River and Kanawha Canal engineering plans, at mouth of Tye River
Source: Library of Virginia

The State of Virginia was bankrupted by the effort to build these internal improvements in order to stimulate growth in the Fall Line cities. There was not enough production in the "hinterland" to justify all the different transportation projects. After the Civil War, Virginia politics were based on the dispute over full repayment of bonds vs. readjusting the debt. Harry Byrd's rise to political domination in Virginia was triggered by his opposition in the 1920's to a new series of bonds to finance highway construction. Instead, he initiated a "pay-as-you-go" philosophy, using automobile license fees and gasoline taxes rather than bonds or general revenues, to build the biggest state-finaced internal improvement of the 1900's: paved roads.