The road history projects undertaken by the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research (formerly the
Virginia Transportation Research Council) establish the feasibility of studies of early road networks and their use in the
environmental review process. These projects, by gathering and publishing the early road orders of the vast parent counties and
other significant areas, also lay the foundation for additional research by local groups over a broad area of Virginia.

This volume marks the 28th entry in the Historic Roads of Virginia series, initiated in 1973 by the Virginia Highway &
Transportation Research Council (subsequently the Virginia Transportation Research Council, and now the Virginia Center for
Transportation Innovation and Research). Loudoun County Road Orders 1757-1783 is a cooperative effort between the Virginia
Center for Transportation Innovation and Research and independent researcher Patricia B. Duncan. This volume furthers the
coverage of early Northern Virginia transportation records begun in the previously published Fairfax County Road Orders 1749-
1800, Frederick County Road Orders 1743-1772, and Orange County Road Orders 1734-1749.

This volume covers the period from the creation of Loudoun County, Virginia, until the years immediately following the
end of the Revolutionary War. By the last half of the 18th century, Loudoun County was already one of the most populous and
economically important counties in Northern Virginia, and it contained major east-west and north-south transportation routes.
The county’s early transportation records provide important information relating to transportation connections with not only
neighboring counties and other southern counties in Virginia but also the Washington, D.C., region and the adjoining states of
Maryland and what is now West Virginia. This publication will have particular application to the cultural resource research
relating to transportation projects in this area of Northern Virginia. This information will eliminate the need for further research
into the early Loudoun County road order records. If questions arise about early roads once a VDOT road improvement project
is already underway (or nearly underway), primary historical research of this nature can take 6 to 12 months to complete.
Therefore, this volume can be a source of potentially significant cost savings for VDOT, including the avoided costs of project
delays and avoided consultant costs for cultural resource studies should questions arise.