Slow Travels: Exploring America's History Along U.S. Highways: Virginia

This installment in our Slow Travels series explores the Commonwealth of Virginia and its history, beginning with the first permanent English settlement in the colonies. U.S. Highways 17 and 60 crisscross the colonial history of Virginia’s Tidewater region. The historic sites of Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown are explored by both. U.S. Highway 50 starts from the Nation’s Capitol, a route which skirts the Civil War history of Manassas before ascending the northern Blue Ridge and Winchester. U.S. Highway 15 travels the length of Virginia’s Piedmont, from the banks of the Potomac River to the North Carolina State Line. The Shenandoah Valley hosts the route of U.S. Highway 11, which travels its length before crossing the Roanoke Valley towards the panhandle and Tennessee. Finally, U.S. Highway 52 skirts the panhandle, crossing from North Carolina to West Virginia.