History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia

by James William Head

The Blue Ridge, the southeasternmost range of the Alleghanies or Appalachian System presents here that uniformity and general appearance which characterizes it throughout the State, having gaps or depressions every eight or ten miles, through which the public roads pass. The most important of these are the Potomac Gap at 500 feet and Snickers and Ashby's Gap, both at 1,100 feet. The altitude of this range in Loudoun varies from 1,000 to 1,600 feet above tide-water, and from 300 to 900 feet above the adjacent country. It falls from 1,100 to 1,000 feet in 4 miles south of the river, and then, rising sharply to 1,600 feet, continues at the higher series of elevations. The Blue Ridge borders the county on the west, its course being about south southwest, or nearly parallel with the Atlantic Coast-line, and divides Loudoun from Clarke County, Virginia, and Jefferson County, West Virginia, the line running along the summit.

Of nearly equal height and similar features are the Short Hills, another range commencing at the Potomac River about four miles below Harpers Ferry and extending parallel to the Blue Ridge, at a distance of nearly four miles from summit to summit, for about twelve miles into the County, where it is broken by a branch of Catoctin Creek. Beyond this stream it immediately rises again and extends about three miles further, at which point it abruptly terminates.

A third range, called "Catoctin Mountain," has its inception in Pennsylvania, traverses Maryland, is interrupted by the Potomac, reappears in Virginia at the river margin, opposite Point of Rocks, and extends through Loudoun County for a distance of twenty or more miles, when it is again interrupted.

Elevations on Catoctin Mountain progressively diminish southward from the Potomac River to Aldie, although the rocks remain the same, and the Tertiary drainage, which might be supposed to determine their elevations, becomes less effective in that direction.

Probably this mountain does not exceed an average of more than 300 feet above the surrounding country, though at some stages it may attain an altitude of 700 feet. Rising near the Potomac into one of its highest peaks, in the same range it becomes alternately depressed and elevated, until reaching the point of its divergence in the neighborhood of Waterford. There it assumes the appearance of an elevated and hilly region, deeply indented by the myriad streams that rise in its bosom.

On reaching the Leesburg and Snicker's Gap Turnpike road, a distance of twelve miles, it expands to three miles in width and continues much the same until broken by Goose Creek and its tributary, the North Fork, when it gradually loses itself in the hills of Goose Creek and Little River, before reaching the Ashby's Gap Turnpike.

The Catoctin range throughout Loudoun pursues a course parallel to the Blue Ridge, the two forming an intermediate valley or baselevel plain, ranging in width from 8 to 12 miles, and in altitude from 350 to 730 feet above sea level. Allusion to the physiography of this valley—so called only by reason of its relation to the mountains on either side—has been made elsewhere in this department.

Immediately south of Aldie, on Little River, near the point of interruption of Catoctin Mountain, another range commences and extends into Fauquier County. It is known as "Bull Run Mountain," but might rightly be considered an indirect continuation of the elevation of the Catoctin, its course and some of its features corresponding very nearly with that mountain save only that it is higher than any of the ranges of the latter, excepting the western.

East of the Catoctin the tumultuous continuity of mountains subsides into gentle undulations, an almost unbroken succession of sloping elevations and depressions presenting an as yet unimpaired variety and charm of landscape. However, on the extreme eastern edge of this section, level stretches of considerable extent are a conspicuous feature of the topography.

Three or four detached hills, rising to an elevation of 150 or 200 feet above the adjacent country, are the only ones of consequence met with in this section.