Merrimack Trail

Last updated April 24, 2019

Merrimack Trail is the local name for State Route 143 as it passes through portions of York County and James City County and the independent city of Williamsburg in the Virginia Peninsula subregion of Hampton Roads in Virginia.

York County is a county in the eastern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in the Tidewater. As of the 2010 census, the population was 65,464. The county seat is the unincorporated town of Yorktown.

James City County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 67,009. Although politically separate from the county, the county seat is the adjacent independent city of Williamsburg.

An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity.

History

With the Restoration and additional tourism traffic generated by Colonial Williamsburg beginning in the late 1920s, Merrimack Trail was built in the early 1930s to supplement U.S. Route 60 as part the State Route 168 project which extended all the way east to North Carolina.

Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting part of an historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Colonial Williamsburg's 301-acre (122 ha) historic area includes buildings from the 18th century, as well as 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures, as well as more recent reconstructions. The historic area is an interpretation of a colonial American city, with exhibits of dozens of restored or re-created buildings related to its colonial and American Revolutionary War history. Colonial Williamsburg's historic area's combination of restoration and re-creation of parts of the colonial town's three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets attempts to suggest the atmosphere and the circumstances of 18th-century Americans. Colonial Williamsburg's motto has been: "that the future may learn from the past".

The Merrimack Trail portion of VA-168 extended on the Virginia Peninsula from Anderson Corner near Toano to a crossing of Hampton Roads to South Hampton Roads by ferry, prior to the opening of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel on November 1, 1957. The ferry, which connected to Norfolk at the end of 99th Street at Pine Beach, charged a toll of automobile and driver, $1 and $1.25 for each additional passenger.^[1]

The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the Lower Peninsula to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the north, the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck.

Toano, formerly Burnt Ordinary, is an unincorporated community in James City County, Virginia, United States.

Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding metropolitan region located in the Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina portions of the Tidewater region.

The name originated because the road lead to a ferry landing in Newport News was located near the historic location of the Battle of Hampton Roads between the ironclad warships in March 1862 during the American Civil War. The Confederate ironclad C.S.S. Virginia had been built from the hull of the U.S.S. Merrimack, partially burned by Union troops evacuating the Norfolk Naval Shipyard the previous year.

Newport News is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 180,719. In 2013, the population was estimated to be 183,412, making it the fifth-most populous city in Virginia.

The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of Ironclads, was the most noted and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies. It was fought over two days, March 8–9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, a roadstead in Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers meet the James River just before it enters Chesapeake Bay adjacent to the city of Norfolk. The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederacy to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginia's largest cities and major industrial centers, Norfolk and Richmond, from international trade.

American Civil War Civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The most studied and written about episode in U.S. history, the Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

In the 1960s, as the new Interstate 64 was completed, major portions of VA-168 west of Old Point Comfort were redesignated as State Route 143.

In the U.S. state of Virginia, Interstate 64 runs east–west through the middle of the state from West Virginia to the Hampton Roads region, a total of 299 miles (481 km). It is notable for crossing the mouth of the harbor of Hampton Roads on the Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel, the first bridge-tunnel to incorporate artificial islands. Also noteworthy is a section through Rockfish Gap, a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which was equipped with an innovative system of airport-style runway lighting embedded into the pavement to aid motorists during periods of poor visibility due to fog or other conditions.

Old Point Comfort is a point of land located in the independent city of Hampton, Virginia. Previously known as Point Comfort, it lies at the extreme tip of the Virginia Peninsula at the mouth of Hampton Roads in the United States.

Related Research Articles

Williamsburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the population was 14,068. In 2014, the population was estimated to be 14,691. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is bordered by James City County and York County.

The Middle Peninsula is the second of three large peninsulas on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, in the United States. It lies between the Northern Neck and the Virginia Peninsula. This peninsula is bounded by the Rappahannock River on the north and the York River on the south, with the Chesapeake Bay to the east. It encompasses six Virginia counties: Essex, Gloucester, King and Queen, King William, Mathews, and Middlesex. Developed for tobacco plantations in the colonial era, in the 21st century the Middle Peninsula is known for its quiet rural life, vegetable truck-farming, and fishing industry.

South Hampton Roads is a region located in the extreme southeastern portion of Virginia's Tidewater region in the United States with a total population of 1,191,937. It is part of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA, which itself has a population of 1,724,876.

Penniman was an unincorporated town in northwestern York County, Virginia, on the south bank of the York River six miles (9.7 km) northeast of Williamsburg. This was on the Virginia Peninsula and near the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States.

Transportation in the Commonwealth of Virginia is by land, sea and air. Virginia's extensive network of highways and railroads were developed and built over a period almost 400 years, beginning almost immediately after the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and often incorporating old established trails of the Native Americans.

State Route 168 is a primary state highway in the South Hampton Roads region of the U.S. state of Virginia. It runs from the border with North Carolina through the independent cities of Chesapeake and Norfolk where it ends in the Ocean View area near the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

State Route 143 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs 35.39 miles (56.95 km) from Camp Peary near Williamsburg east to U.S. Route 258 at Fort Monroe in Hampton. SR 143 is a major local thoroughfare on the Virginia Peninsula portion of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. The state highway is named Merrimac Trail through the independent city of Williamsburg and adjacent portions of York County and James City County. SR 143 follows Jefferson Avenue through the city of Newport News from the Williamsburg area past Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport to near Downtown Newport News. The state highway, which mostly runs northwest–southeast, heads northeast from Newport News, serving as one highway connecting the downtown areas of Newport News and Hampton. SR 143 parallels both US 60 and Interstate 64 (I-64) extensively, and sometimes very closely, throughout its course. The state highway also runs concurrently with US 60 in Hampton and with US 17 in Newport News.

State Route 351 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known for most of its length as Pembroke Avenue, the state highway runs 8.81 miles (14.18 km) from U.S. Route 60 in Newport News east to Second Street in Hampton.

U.S. Route 60 in Virginia runs 303 miles (488 km) west to east through the central part of the state, generally close to and paralleling the Interstate 64 corridor, except for the crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and in the South Hampton Roads area.

State Route 170 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as Little Creek Road, the state highway runs 2.65 miles (4.26 km) from SR 165 east to U.S. Route 60 within the independent city of Norfolk. SR 170 is the eastern part of the connection between Naval Station Norfolk and Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek.

Located in the southeastern corner of the state, Norfolk is economically and culturally important to Virginia. A variety of transportation modes have developed around the city's importance and somewhat unusual geography.

Queen's Creek is located in York County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. From a point of origin near the Waller Mill Reservoir in western York County, it flows northeasterly across the northern half of the Peninsula as a tributary of the York River.

Historically, the harbor was the key to the Hampton Roads area's growth, both on land and in water-related activities and events. Ironically, the harbor and its tributary waterways were both important transportation conduits and obstacles to other land-based commerce and travel. For hundreds of years, state and community leaders have worked to develop solutions to accommodate both.

The history of Hampton Roads dates to 1607, when Jamestown was founded. Two wars have taken place in addition to many other historical events.

Anderson's Corner, Virginia is located in James City County near the unincorporated community of Toano. Located at the intersection of U.S. Route 60 and State Route 30, Anderson's Corner was the western terminus of State Route 168 a new four-laned highway also known as the Merrimack Trail which was established in the pre-World War II era to supplement the heavily traveled Route 60 through the Williamsburg where the Colonial Williamsburg Restoration funded by Abby and John D. Rockefeller Jr.. had added to traffic, as well as the growing Virginia Peninsula area, connecting via harbor ferry with similarly designated roads in South Hampton Roads.

References

↑ http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/VAGuide/hampton2.html

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[1] ttp://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/VAGuide/hampton2.html