23. Fort Chiswell

At Fort Chiswell, Virginia, the Transamerican Bicycle Route parallels a section where two interstate highways run together. Interstate 77 connects North Carolina to West Virginia and Interstate 81 connects Tennessee to the Canadian border in New York state. For a cyclist, the highways are not accessible. Interstate highways are closed to two wheel vehicles, which are relegated to lower traffic routes to reach the same destinations. Yet these highways, which seem so inaccessible and even dangerous to cyclists now, have a history which is inseparable from the development of cycling in late nineteenth century America. This podcast explores the ways that the development of cycling in late nineteenth century America contributed to the establishment of a national system of roads. While this aspect of cycling history is relatively well documented, one dimension of this change, the connections between cycling and racial politics in the United States, are the focus of this podcast, which situates this intersection in the broader history of Virginia specifically and the US south more generally. This episode also explores ways that traffic patterns in the 1970s compare to traffic patterns today, thus illustrating how America has changed in the half-century since the Transamerican Route was established in 1976. The episode is connected to the historic site of Fort Chiswell, located just over 400 miles from Yorktown, the starting point for the westbound route, and about 150 miles from the Kentucky border, where eastbound rides enter Virginia.