Historical Marker Unveiling Celebration: John G. Lewis Bridge (May 2, 2025)

Below is an announcement of a local event.

This event celebrates the official unveiling of the new State Historical Marker at the John G. Lewis Memorial Bridge located over the Catoctin Creek on Featherbed Lane in Lovettsville, Virginia. Brief words by local leaders reflecting on the rehabilitation process will be followed by a ceremonial march across the bridge. Light refreshments will be offered.

Through a collaboration of citizens, local leaders, and VDOT, the John G. Lewis Memorial Bridge recently underwent a $5 million renovation. The bridge, which has been identified on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974, was originally constructed in 1889 to span Goose Creek on Route 7 in Leesburg. In 1932, the bridge was moved to its current location on Featherbed Lane over the Catoctin Creek. Today, the John G. Lewis Memorial Bridge is one of the last operational wrought iron truss bridges built by the Variety Iron Company.

**Please RSVP your attendance via email to David Nelson by April 28, 2025: danelson2009@gmail.com**

Park on the east side of the road near the bridge, if you will be in attendance.

To obtain a personal copy of the original artwork used in the above announcement, contact the artist, Alice Powers, at powergang@aol.com.

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Agenda for May 2, 2025

11:00am – Coffee and pastries provided

11:15am – David Nelson introduces first speaker

11:20am – Rich Gillespie, “Historic Context of John Lewis Bridge and Loyalty”

11:30am – Geary Higgins remarks

11:40am – Suhas Subramanyam remarks

11:55am – Bill Cuttler (VDOT) remarks

12:05pm – Aimee Jorjani (Virginia Board of Historic Resources) remarks

12:15pm – Suhas Subramanyam unveils the marker

12:25pm – Al Van Huyck, final remarks

12:30pm-1:00pm – Refreshments served

Special Thanks to local artist Alice Powers for providing artwork for invites and the event. Please stop by her table and admire her artwork.

Special Thanks to the Catoctin Creek Scenic River Advisory Committee for manpower and support.

Special Thanks to the local community for years of support.

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Speaker Biographies

Richard Gillespie

Richard Treat Gillespie is a is a retired history educator and public historian living in Taylorstown. He retired as Executive Director of the Mosby Heritage Area Association (now the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Association) in January 2017 and now serves as the VPHA’s Historian Emeritus. He is also a current board member for the Lovettsville Historical Society.

Geary Higgins

Geary Michael Higgins, who lives near Waterford, has represented the 30^th District, which includes Loudoun, in the Virginia House of Delegates, since 2023. Prior to serving in the state legislature, he was a member of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. 

Suhas Subramanyam

Suhas Subramanyam is a lawyer elected in 2024 to represent Virginia’s 10th Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served in the Virginia Senate from 2024 to 2025 and in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2020 to 2024.

Bill Cuttler, P.E., was named VDOT’s Northern Virginia District Engineer in November 2023. The Northern District serves more than 2.5 million residents. Mr. Cutler leads the transportation program for state-maintained roads in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince Williams Counties, and VDOT-supported highways in nine cities and towns. In his 23 years with VDOT, he served as Deputy District Engineer, District Construction Engineer, and in other capacities. Cuttler’s teams have won two National Project of the Year Awards, and a Governor’s Technology Award.

Mr. Cuttler leads a talented team dedicated to serving 2.5 million residents of Northern Virginia. He is responsible for the planning, design, construction, maintenance, operations, and business functions of almost 800 employees serving more than 14,000 lane miles in four counties: Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William, as well as VDOT-supported highways in nine cities and towns.

The Virginia Board of Historic Resources designates historic landmarks, establishes preservation practices for them, approves highway historical markers, and reviews programs of the Department of Historic Resources. Ms. Jorjani was previously Chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) where she was the first full-time chair of the ACHP, a federal agency that advises the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy. Her appointment was made possible by amendments to the National Historic Preservation Act through the National Park Service Centennial Act. She was nominated for the position by President Donald Trump and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

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About the John Lewis Bridge and “Loyalty”

The east side of the bridge and surrounding area contains the remains of a long-vanished village named “Loyalty.” Within sight of the bridge in the early 19th century was a large merchant mill built by Quaker Richard Roach, a blacksmith shop, 5-6 houses and outbuildings that have now vanished due to weather, neglect, the Civil War, and housing development, and now exist only in a few old photos and maps.

Just past the first hill, east of the bridge and north of Featherbed Road and still visible is the magnificent manor house originally built by Quaker Jacob Waltman in the late 18th century, with additions by the Firestones, John Kluge and others. In the early 1980s the famous racehorse “Genuine Risk,” winner of the 1980 Kentucky Derby, grazed these lush meadows near the bridge, and still in place is the racing track used to train her just beyond sight in the trees northeast of the bridge.

The John Lewis Bridge is a direct link to that rural past, and also to a new future, since many new houses and communities have now replaced the old village of Loyalty.

The John G. Lewis Memorial Bridge was built in 1889 and originally spanned Goose Creek at what is now Route 7. Historian John G. Lewis discovered, through a combination of oral history and physical documentation, that this iron truss bridge constructed by Variety Iron Works of Cleveland, Ohio, replaced a bridge over Goose Creek that had been destroyed by flooding. The replacement allowed the Leesburg & Alexandria Turnpike to continue operation. In 1932, after decades
of use on the turnpike, the bridge at Goose Creek was replaced by a wider bridge which remained until the path of Route 7 was realigned, and the older iron bridge was relocated here on Catoctin Creek. Sometime after that that bridge was moved to its current location.

Featherbed Lane, previously known as Featherbottom Road, had a bridge over Catoctin Creek for quite some time before the current bridge was transported to the site in 1932. The construction methods of the bridge abutments indicate there was a much older bridge previously located there.

Who is John G. Lewis, and why is the bridge named after him?

In 1974, a dam was proposed to be constructed north of Taylorstown at the confluence of Catoctin Creek and the Potomac River. The resultant reservoir would have flooded over 3,000 acres of the Catoctin Valley between the Potomac and Waterford, and would have essentially demolished the Featherbed Lane bridge, the village of Taylorstown, and all historical residences and other structures in the area. But through the efforts of the Catoctin Valley Defense Alliance, effectively led by Phil Ehrenkranz, the damming of Catoctin Creek was prevented. Historian Lewis, who had extensively researched the history of properties in Loudoun, applied his findings to the Catoctin Valley specifically, identified the historic treasures threatened, and became the the main proponent of this bridge’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

By so applying his historic knowledge and expertise, Lewis managed to preserve the bridge and help get multiple residences, and two historic districts (Taylorstown and Goose Creek) placed on the National Register. Additionally, John, Phil and State Sen. Charlie Waddell worked concertedly to attain Scenic River status for Catoctin and Goose Creeks. Significantly, in 1976, the two Loudoun creeks were among the first six streams admitted to the Virginia Scenic River System. John and his cohorts thus brought about this remarkable result: Catoctin Creek, a State-designated Scenic River flowing from Waterford, a National Historic Landmark District, under a bridge listed on the National Register, through Taylorstown, another National Register Historic District, to the Potomac. It is a rare, possibly unique, historic preservation “hat trick.” These achievements could not have happened without John Lewis’s work and contributions, especially his advocacy on behalf of the bridge, and his provision of crucial documentation required to push back against the damming efforts of the Fairfax County Water Authority and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whose projects, as noted, would have destroyed much of our historical land and properties in this area.

Accordingly, in July 2015, this bridge was officially named the John G. Lewis Memorial Bridge to honor the preservation efforts of this historian who had such a positive significant impact on the region.

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