The Nichol's Gap Road was a central

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

established in the 18th century near

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

, extending westward from the Black's Gap Road "just west of Little Conewago Creek" at the '' Crofs Keys'' stand of James Black. The road went past both the Rock Creek Church and the 1761 Samuel Gettys tavern where Gettysburg would be surveyed in 1786. The highway was built over

South Mountain (Maryland and Pennsylvania) South Mountain is the northern extension of the Blue Ridge Mountain range in Maryland and Pennsylvania. From the Potomac River near Knoxville, Maryland in the south to Dillsburg, Pennsylvania in York County, Pennsylvania in the north, the ra ...

via Nichol's Gap () and down the Devils Racecourse into the

Cumberland Valley The Cumberland Valley is a northern constituent valley of the Great Appalachian Valley, within the Atlantic Seaboard watershed in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Appalachian Trail crosses through the valley. Geography The valley is bound to th ...

, allowing access to

Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States and the county seat of Washington County. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census was 43,527, and the population of the Hagerstow ...

. Called the "Hagerstown Road" during the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of th ...

, parts of the road are now designated (east-to-west): U.S. Route 30, Pennsylvania Route 116 (Fairfield Road to

Fairfield, Pennsylvania Fairfield is a borough in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 526 at the 2020 census. History During the Gettysburg Campaign in the American Civil War, the Battle of Fairfield played an important role in securing the ...

), Iron Springs Road, Gum Springs Road, and Old Route 16. (The summit section through Nichol's Gap—"Fairfield Gap" during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

—no longer has a roadway.)

History

The Nichol's Gap Road was established westward by a Commonwealth of

Act of 1781, crossing an Indian trail on which a road had been established by 1749 southward from Paxton, Pennsylvania, to the area of the Carroll tracts near Maryland. The 1786 Fairfield Inn on the Nichol's Gap Road was established on the east side of South Mountain (Millerstown was surveyed in 1801), and the 1792 " Oxford Town" was laid out near the road's east end by Henry Kuhn at the 1763 Kuhn Tavern. The 1805 Harbaugh homestead was built at the base of the road's west slope near the 1760s

Mason–Dixon line The Mason–Dixon line, also called the Mason and Dixon line or Mason's and Dixon's line, is a demarcation line separating four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (part of Virgini ...

. The 1809 Gettysburg and Petersburg Turnpike crossed the Nichol's Gap Road at the Gettysburg borough, and the 1812 Black Horse Tavern was established on the road at the Marsh Creek stone arch bridge. In 1818, the York and Gettysburg Turnpike Company established their turnpike on eastern portions of the Nichol's Gap Road, and the 1820 Waynesboro–

Emmitsburg Emmitsburg is a town in Frederick County, Maryland, United States, south of the Mason-Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania. Founded in 1785, Emmitsburg is the home of Mount St. Mary's University. The town has two Catholic pilgrima ...

Turnpike crossed the Nichol's Gap Road west of their summits. (A toll gate was at the crossroads.) The 1822

Maria Furnace Maria Furnace is a South Mountain populated place on Toms Creek in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States, west of Fairfield, that was the location of an 1822 blast furnace until operations were moved to Caledonia Caledonia (; ) was t ...

was established along the road at the foot of the east slope, and

Herman Haupt Herman Haupt (March 26, 1817 – December 14, 1905) was an American civil engineer and railroad construction engineer and executive. As a Union Army General during the American Civil War, he revolutionized U.S. military transportation, particul ...

located the 1836

Tapeworm Railroad The Tapeworm Railroad (Gettysburg Rail Road) was a railway line planned by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and nicknamed by opponents ridiculing a lengthy serpentine section around the Green Ridge of South Mountain after an orator compared the p ...

course to cross the Nichol's Gap Road west of Toms Creek. In addition to excavations for parts of the Tapeworm bed, the Commonwealth built a single-arch stone roadway bridge over Toms Creek for the Nichol's Gap Road. (The 1888-9 Western Extension by the

Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway The Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway was a railroad that operated in Maryland and Pennsylvania in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The 59 miles (95 km) main line ran from Emory Grove, Maryland to Orrtanna, Pennsylvania, with a 6 miles (9.7 ...

still uses a stone arch bridge over the road at Iron Springs, Pennsylvania.) The 1863

Fight at Monterey Pass The Fight at Monterey Pass (or Gap) was an American Civil War military engagement beginning the evening of July 4, 1863, during the Retreat from Gettysburg. A Confederate wagon train of Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps, Army of Northern V ...

was a Gettysburg Campaign engagement at the toll gate near the summit. (One Union body was buried at the site and re-interred by 1913 in the

Gettysburg National Cemetery Gettysburg National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery created for Union casualties from the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg, which was fought between July 1 to 3, 1863, resulted in the large ...

.) In 1913, the original

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

was designated on the portion of the route between Gettysburg and Cross Keys, and in 1920 the Commonwealth offered the toll house west of Fairfield for sale. The modern highway between Fairfield and Gettysburg was constructed in 1927 ("Fairfield Road"), replacing single-lane stone bridges at Muddy Run and "at Plank's".

References

{{Reflist History of Adams County, Pennsylvania Former toll roads in Pennsylvania

History

See also

References