Northwestern Turnpike

West Virginia's Northwestern Turnpike follows much of present-day US Route 50 from Winchester, Virginia, west to Parkersburg on the Ohio River. George Washington first proposed an all-Virginia route to the Ohio back in 1784, but the Virginia General Assembly didn't charter the Northwestern Turnpike until 1827, with construction starting in 1831 under engineers Charles Shaw and Claudius Crozet. The road reached Grafton by 1852 and finally Parkersburg in 1857, passing through Fellowsville, Thornton, Pruntytown, Clarksburg, Salem, and West Union along the way, a slow, expensive build across some of the most rugged terrain east of the Mississippi. Considered a monument to its engineers' skill, the turnpike opened a practical wagon route across the Alleghenies decades before railroads reached the region. Today, US 50 traces most of the original alignment, letting drivers follow essentially the same path that connected the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River nearly two centuries ago.

• US Route 50
• Winchester to Parkersburg
• 1827 charter
• Claudius Crozet engineering
• Clarksburg
• 1857 completion
• Appalachian wagon route