About the Virginia Highways Project

About the
Virginia Highways Project
The original Virginia Highways route pages were created by Dave Strong in 1998, whose original work is preserved here to the maximum extent possible. We could not be in the position to have this site without the groundbreaking work he performed.  The initial sources that Dave used to create the site are not known.  The following sources have been used since:

Official VDOT maps: copy of 1923, 1925, copy of 1928, June 1929, copy of July 1931 [legend: June 1931], September 1931 [legend: June 1931], copy of June 1932 [legend: April 1932], copy of July 1933, 1934 [tourist/pictorial guide], April 1937 [legend July 1936], 1938-39 [legend July 1938], 1940 [legend Oct 1939], every issue 1941 and later. A large pile of Virginia State Maps are available online
Official VDOT County maps: 1932, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1943, 1951, 1957, 1958, 1995 VDOT County Atlas photographed by Mapmikey and Froggie (State Library of Virginia); about 1/3 complete set for 1961, 1965 Orange, 1967 Orange, 1975 VDOT City Atlas Book (library)
Special thanks to Nate Rathjen for sending some scans of part of the 1933 County Atlas.

Other maps of Virginia: 1928 Esso (Mid Atlantic), 1929 Gulf (VA-WV-MD-DE) 1931 Esso (Mid Atlantic), 1933 Conoco (Mid Atlantic), 1934 Conoco (Mid Atlantic), 1939 Esso (Mid Atlantic), 1940 AAA (Southeastern States), 1953 Esso (Southeastern States)

Atlases: 1922-23 Rand McNally Auto Trails: District 20 (copy) 1923-24 and 1926 Rand McNally Auto Trails: mid Atlantic states, 1927 Clason�s, 1928 Jr. Rand McNally Auto Trails, 1930 Clason's, The following Rand Mcnally Atlases: 1941, 1956, 1961, 1986, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005

Neighboring States showing some of Virginia: 1938 Esso (NC-SC), 1939 Esso (NC-SC), 1940 Esso (NC-SC), 1942 Esso (NC-SC), 1946 Mobilgas (NC-SC), 1951 Gulf (NC-SC), 1953 Shell (NC-SC)

A lot of good information is now available on VDOT's website:
Commonwealth Transportation Board minutes (CTB minutes) -- VDOT has put all the dealings of the CTB from 1920 to the present on its website. This is simply an overabundance of wealth of information about the development of highways in Virginia. It gives insight into how business was conducted back in the early days, and one could even write the history of rural electrification in Virginia through these documents - every right-of-way granted is shown individually. To check out 1920-2001 CTB minutes here. To look at 2002 to the present, go here.
A special thanks to NE2 for independent research into the hundreds of pdf documents from 1920-2001 that help us sort out the early days of Virginia routes.
VDOT's website also has Mileage Tables and Traffic Count data available on the web, which provide additional details that form the fabric of the road system.
AASHO Database: Released in 2020, this is an invaluable assembly of documents related to US routes and Interstates for all of the US. Access it here

Route shields for the route log pages come from Tim Reichard and ShieldsUp! by David Kendrick

We would like to recognize the contributions of Russell Blau, who has given information based on his collection of VDOT maps, notably 1933 (pre-renumbering), 1934 (1st renumbering map), and 1936.
Also, thanks to Jim Bradshaw for providing copies of some older VDOT issues, as well.
Additional thanks goes to Melvin Hatcher, who provided a copy of the 1922-23 Auto Trails Map of the Southeast, which confirms the use of single digit routes prior to 1923.
Additional thanks to Adam Prince and Gribble Nation for allowing links to pictures on their site.
Additional thanks to Chris E and Nicholas Mooneyhan for photo submissions, Dan F and Dan Ehlke for many field notes, and TS Smith for a number of F-route submissions. Also to Dave Montuori for the detailed description of Williamsburg area stuff.
Additional thanks to all those who have sent one or two notes from your part of the Commonwealth, while the number of people in this category is too big to name individually, we greatly appreciate the help!
Additionally, comments for various routes have been provided by Dave, Froggie, Mapmikey, and others who submitted them. These are largely through the personal experiences of the authors and are credited where applicable.

Tennessee Annex:  The following Tennessee Official Highway Maps were used in compiling the route information for the Tennessee pages:  1929, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1946, 1954, 1956, 1959, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972-73, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980-81, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005.

Billy Riddle for co-writing several of the route listings.

Several county and city-series maps from the TDOT website were also used.  Additional assistance was provided by Chris Yoder.



About Mapmikey: I have lived in Tidewater Virginia 1974,1991-93 and Northern Virginia 1995-present. In that time I have driven approximately 750,000 miles in these timeframes, covering many parts of Virginia and the Southeast-Mid Atlantic. To date, I have collected (completely driven) the entirety of Virginia Primary Routes, plus Delaware and Maryland. I am an avid road collector, with about 2225 captured nationwide as of this writing, per Travelmapping.net.

About Froggie:  My first Virginia experiences were in November, 1999, during trips north along I-81 and south along the Eastern Shore.  I was then stationed in Norfolk from December 2001 through July 2005.  During this time, I have researched old highway plans for the Hampton Roads, Roanoke, Richmond, and Northern Virginia areas, traveled to every county and city in Virginia, and taken over 3,000 photos of Virginia highways.

 

Page last modified 27 March, 2022