After a month of searching, my son and I finally found a place to live, in Lake Ridge, a charming area I’ve always enjoyed driving to.
LAKE RIDGE
So once again, I asked myself, What’s in a name? What’s Lake Ridge? Alas, only a name bestowed by developers in the 1960s.
Driving through over the years, I assumed there was a lake somewhere in this area.
After looking more carefully at the map upon this moving journey, I realized Lake Ridge reflects the Occoquan River which snakes through the area.
At the eastern boundary of Lake Ridge, the Occoquan widens as it flows into Belmont Bay, then the Potomac River, to the Chesapeake Bay, then the Atlantic Ocean…all on the eastern seaboard of Virginia.
FALL LINE
Winding through Lake Ridge, Old Bridge Road drops sharply in elevation, as it twists and turns through the beautiful woods, before it quickly rises, again.
This stunningly gorgeous area is the Fall Line.
Geographically, Virginia is divided into four parts.
To the west are the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia’s highest elevation.
On the eastern shore is the Tidewater, where Virginia land meets the deep water of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.
In between is the Piedmont, which comprises most of Virginia rolling hills between the Blue Ridge and Tidewater.
Dividing the Piedmont from the Tidewater is the Fall Line, a sharp drop in elevation, which makes the rivers passing through impossible for boats to navigate.
In 1608, John Smith discovered on each of Virginia’s rivers, that he accessed from the vast Chesapeake Bay.
Sailing into the mouth of the James River, Rappahannock River, the Occoquan River, and the Potomac River, and too many creeks to mention, Smith soon came to rocky waterfalls.
Those waterfalls were the Fall Line, which likely accounts for the name ridge in Lake Ridge.
OLD BRIDGE ROAD
When I first rode on Old Bridge Road, I expected to find one, perhaps with a covered bridge, but I never found anything like that.
Although the street address can include Lake Ridge for the city name, most often the larger town of Woodbridge is used.
WOODBRIDGE KEY DISCOVERED
After a lot of research, I learned that the history of Woodbridge, which also puzzled me, was the key to understanding Old Bridge Road and Lake Ridge.
In 2016, I unknowingly stumbled upon that key when I first visited Gunston Hall Plantation, home to George Mason, on Mason Neck, a peninsula bounded by the Potomac River to the north and east, and the Occoquan River to the south.
George Mason was a near neighbor to George Washington at Mount Vernon, further up the Potomac River.
Across Gunston Hall’s extensive acreage on the Mason Neck, lay more land that Mason owned across the Occoquan River, through which the King’s Highway ran.
KING’S HIGHWAY
The King’s Highway, developed during the British colonial era of the 18th century, ran along the length of the eastern seaboard, allowing travel north and south through the colonies.
In the 17th century, King Charles II needed a mail delivery route connecting his royal governors in the colonial capitals in America.
Without a continuous road connecting the colonies, the king built one, named the King’s Highway.
At the completion of the project in the mid-1730s, the King’s Highway ran as far north as Boston, Massachusetts and as far south as Charleston, South Carolina.
In Northern Virginia, the King’s Highway was also called the Potomac Path, since it ran along the Potomac River, today’s Rte 1
Crossing the Occoquan River by ferry near Gunston Hall, the King’s Highway passed the many plantations in the area: Deep Hole at the Occoquan Bay, Rippon Lodge, Leesylvania, Tayloe Iron Works near Dumfries.
Through the marshy areas created by Quantico and Chopawamsic Creeks, the King’s Highway was built on the highest terrain possible. (Currently Prince William Forest, which was backwoods at that time.)
In order for travelers on the King’s Highway to cross the Occoquan River, a ferry named after the small town of Colchester on the northern bank made crossing possible…and this ferry belonged to George Mason.
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY COURTHOUSE
Formed from Stafford County in 1730, Prince William County included land currently under the jurisdiction of Fauquier, Loudoun, and Fairfax counties.
Since the concentration of the area was along the Potomac River, due to the need to roll hogshead barrels of tobacco to export, along with the exchange of other products.
Between the populated stretch of Tidewater that ran from Alexandria to Dumfries, Prince William County’s first courthouse was built where the King’s Highway met the Occoquan River on its southern bank.
The present-day location can be found in a new subdivision that reflects the area’s history, at the north end of Colchester Ferry Place.
How convenient for the King’s Highway to run past the courthouse of Prince William County, established about the time the highway was completed.
COLCHESTER TOBACCO PORT AND FERRY CROSSING
Established in 1753, the small town of Colchester became a tobacco port at this busy location of the King’s Highway.
Located on the northern side of the Occoquan River, and on the Mason Neck, Colchester boasted an ordinary (or small tavern that served food) called the Fairfax Arms built about the same time the town became a tobacco port. (Still standing today, the Fairfax Arms is owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority.)
WOODBRIDGE PLANTATION
In 1792, Thomas Mason inherited his father’s land south of the Occoquan River, which included the Colchester Ferry Crossing.
Establishing Woodbridge Plantation on a high point overlooking the Occoquan River (around today’s Belmont Bay area) emptying into the bay, Thomas Mason managed the ferry crossing nearby.
At the same time Nathaniel Ellicott built a bridge in the little town of Occoquan two miles from Thomas Mason’s ferry (today that is a walking bridge in Occoquan), Mason replaces his ferry with a wooden bridge, hence his plantation’s name. (today that is Rte. 1)
After marrying Sarah Barnes Hooe of a prominent Virginia family in 1793, they had four children, two sons and two daughters.
Although considered quite wealthy on books, in reality he was broke, as was common with the use of slave labor.
In the final year of his life, Thomas Mason served as delegate to the General Assembly for Prince William County from 1799 to 1800.
RICHMOND, FREDERICKSBURG, & POTOMAC RAILROAD
In the 19th century, the Belmont Bay peninsula was full of farms spread across the area, that slowly diminished over time.
Chartered in 1834, the Richmond, Fredericksburg, & Potomac Railroad took travelers from Richmond to Aquia Creek (today’s Quantico), where they continued their journey to Washington by boat, due to the extensive marshes around Chopawamsic Creek.
Eventually, the railroad connection to Washington was extended in 1872, with a trestle railroad bridge crossing the Occoquan along the old King’s Highway, stopping in Colchester before resuming to Washington.
OLD BRIDGE ROAD
Traveling Old Bridge Road daily, it terminates at the Occoquan River, where one must either turn right (towards Thomas Mason’s old ferry crossing, which is now Rte. 1) or left across a modern bridge over the Occoquan River, which overlooks the historic town of Occoquan.
Since 1742, the Occoquan River has served as the boundary between Prince William and Fairfax Counties.
LAKE RIDGE SECRET AGENT
As far as Lake Ridge history, the biggest claim to fame I’ve found is Elizabeth “Betty” Peet McIntosh who was born in Washington DC in 1915 and passed away in Lake Ridge in 2015.
Her one hundred years of history included espionage.
While living in Hawaii as a news correspondent, Pearl Harbor was attacked.
Since she fluently spoke Japanese, she served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1943.
Recording her experiences in the OSS, McIntosh had her book Undercover Girl, published in 1947.
After her service with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1958 to 1973, she wrote Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS in 1998.
