Vestal's Gap Road

Vestal's Gap Road is among the oldest remaining segments of colonial highway in America. Initially an Indian trail, it became an important route for commerce from Alexandria to Leesburg and Winchester, westward migration, and troop movements. Lt. Col. George Washington and Gen. Edward Braddock's forces traveled the road in 1755 to defeat at Fort Duquesne in the first phase of the Seven Years' War between the British and the French. The Declaration of Independence and Constitution were secretly carried to Leesburg over this road when the British burned Washington, D.C. in 1814. The Leesburg Turnpike supplanted the road in 1825.