Roads West
During the 1770s, Samuel Pepper established a
ferry crossing nearby which opened a transportation, route during the late colonial and early
national periods linking the resources of the
West with the population centers in the East.
A century later, the Norfolk & Western Railroad
designed a route through this part of the New
g River Valley, thereby providing access to
vast coalfields near Flat Top Mountain. In 1899,
the Pepper’s Ferry Bridge and Tunnel were
completed to circumvent a bend in the New
River. Now known as the Cowan Tunnel, it
retains the original stone-faced portal on
the west side.
Marker is on Peppers Ferry Road near the New River Bridge (Virginia Route 114), on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
