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By Don Audette
Rappahannock News Writer
On Wednesday, May 18, 1921, Dr. Samuel Myrtle Johnson, the director general of the Lee Highway Association, made a triumphal tour of the last section to be delineated of the coast-tocoast Lee Highway. The Warrenton-Sperryville-Luray route had been selected by the Lee Highway Association, instead of the Front RoyalStrasburg route, as the best way to go from Gainesville, Va., to the Valley Turnpike.
On that Wednesday, 80 years ago, Dr. Johnson addressed, at two-hour intervals, large crowds in Amissville, Little Washington, and Sperryville on his way to Luray on the western side of the Blue Ridge. Accompanied by many automobiles, he made his way over Thornton’s Gap and down the other side, to be greeted in the evening by an overflow crowd at the Luray courthouse.
He was welcomed by a special choir singing patriotic songs, including “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which had been reworked to include lines celebrating the award of the Warrenton-SperryvilleLuray route.
Dr. Johnson then made an inspiring address to the enthusiastic crowd. He spoke of the tough route-selection process. How the Winchester route was dropped because it was too circuitous to reach the Valley Turnpike. He told of his misgivings about the steep grades over Thornton Gap, but that the route-selection committee, made up of three of the most eminent road men in the United States, did not view the grades as a serious objection.
These gentlemen were also very much in touch with future federal road legislation, and the Warrenton
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